Divisioa  ^^^CL 

Section     ^0    '  | 


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THE   ClTYi 


ITS    SINS    AND    SORROWS 


THE  CITY: 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS. 


Bbino  a  Skbies  of  Sermons  from  Lukb  ziz.  41. 


RAGGED  SCHOOLS 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE,  D.  D. 


NEW  YORK: 
ROBERT  CARTER  &  BROTHERS, 

530  BROAT^WAY. 


THE    CITYi 

ITS    SINS   AND    SORROWS. 


SERMON   I. 

*'  He  beheld  the  city,  and  wept  over  it." — Luke  xix.  41. 

ONE  evening  as  Saul  returned  to  Gibeali 
with  Lis  cattle  from  their  distant  pastures, 
the  lowing  of  his  herd  was  lost  in  a  wail  that 
grew  loud  and  louder  as  he  drew  near  the 
city.  Some  mischief  has  happened.  Amazed 
and  alarmed,  he  hurries  forward  to  find  the 
people  all  dissolved  in  tears — distracted  by 
some  public  grief.  What  can  have  happened? 
Bathed  in  golden  sunset,  Gibeah  from  her 
mountain  seat  looked  quietly  down  on  the 
green  vale  of  Jordan,  away  to  the  shores  of 
the  Dead  Sea.  He  saw  no  occasion  whatever 
tor  this  terrible  turmoil.  He  saw  noi  dead 
1* 


6  THE  city: 

nor  dying.  Why,  then,  do  the  men  plucl 
their  beards,  the  women  with  dishevelled  haii 
and  long  loud  wail  beat  their  naked  breasts, 
and  the  very  children,  moved  by  sympathy 
and  infected  with  the  general  grief,  mingle 
tlieir  own  with  their  parents'  tears?  Since 
morning,  when  he  left  the  city,  a  m.essenger, 
who  sped  on  flying  feet,  had  arrived,  breath- 
less, from  Jabesh-Gilead.  He  brought  alarm- 
ing tidings.  He  tells  Saul's  townsmen  that 
unless  they  and  the  country  will  rise  to  the 
rescue,  the  city  must  open  her  gates  to  the 
Ammonites,  and  submit  to  the  most  barbarous 
cruelties.  Ignorant  of  this,  nor  seeing  occa- 
sion for  their  sorrow,  Saul,  on  whom  the  Spiril 
of  the  Lord  w\as  about  to  descend,  that  he 
might  rise  an  avenger  and  deliverer  of  the  op- 
pressed, demanded  to  know  the  cause  of  this 
frantic  grief.  He  said : — "What  aileth  the 
people  that  they  weep?" 

The  same  question  may  be  asked  regarding 
the  Saviour's  tears  on  the  occasion  to  which 
my  text  refers.  A  mighty  crowd  was  rolling 
down  upon  Jerusalem  from  the  sides  of  Olivet. 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  7 

On  they  came,  rending  the  air  with  acclama- 
tions. With  prophetic  ear,  and  five  centuries 
before,  Zecbariah  had  heard  these  shouts,  and 
catching  them,  where  he,  stood  upon  the 
heights  of  prophecy,  he  shouted  back  again  to 
the  jubilant  multitude  : — "  Kejoice  greatly,  0 
daughter  of  Zion,  shout,  O  daughter  of  Jeru- 
salem, behold  thy  King  cometh  unto  thee. 
He  is  just,  and  having  salvation,  lowly  and 
riding  upon  an  ass."  Now  I  can  fancy  one 
of  that  crowd — who  was  near  enough  our 
Lcyd  to  see  the  tears  upon  his  cheek — with 
greater  surprise  than  Saul,  asking  John  or 
Peter,  or  some  other  one  of  the  twelve,  who 
formed  all  the  body-guard  of  this  King,  What 
aileth  Jesus  that  he  weeps?  In  such  an 
hour,  wnat  makes  him  sad?  Did  ever  king 
thus  enter  his  capital — on  the  eve  of  his  coro- 
nation thus  present  himself  to  a  joyous  peo- 
ple ?  What  ails  him  ?  What  would  he 
have?  The  nation  renders  him  every  honor. 
His  enemies  being  witnesses,  the  whole  world 
is  gone  after  him.  The  palm  trees  yield  their 
branches,  the  men   their  robes,   the   women 


8  THE  city: 

their  admiration,  the  whole  multitude  their 
voices,  as  they  pour  their  hearts  into  the 
joyous  cry  : — "  Hosanna,  Hosanna,  blessed 
be  he  that  oometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord." 
Why,  then,  that  shadow  on  his  thoughtful 
brow,  that  deep  expression  of  sorrow  on  hia 
face — in  his  eyes  these  starting  tears  ?  Every- 
thing smiles  on  Jesus.  The  day  is  auspicious. 
Jerusalem  has  come  out  to  welcome  her  long 
expected  King.  The  whole  scene  is  bathed  in 
sunshine,  nor  is  there  a  cloud  in  all  the  sky 
of  his  smiling  fortunes  to  account  for  tlys 
shower  of  tears.  What  aileth  Jesus  that  he 
weeps?  There  must  be  some  secret  grief, 
til  at,  overflowing  the  deep  fountains  of  his 
heart,  runs  out  at  his  eyes  in  these  streaming 
tears.     There  was. 

Often  coveted  yet  fatal  power  1  he  foresaw 
the  future.  But  however  eventful  to  this 
world  were  the  next  three  days,  it  was  not 
on  their  sad  scenes  and  circumstances  that  his 
weeping  eye  was  fixed.  Down  in  that  garden, 
by  the  glare  of  midnight  torches,  thaj;  flashed 
and  flickered  amid  its  hoary  olives,  he  saw  a 


ITS  SINa   AJ^D  SORKOWS,  9 

prisoner  bound  fast  with  cords;  in  yonder 
judgment  hall,  that  towered  conspicuous 
above  the  other  buildings,  he  saw  a  captive, 
arrayed  in  the  mockery  of  purple,  and  bearing 
on  his  brow  a  thorny  crown ;  in  that  long 
street  which  wound  through  the  city,  he  saw 
one  exhausted  by  brutal  usage,  and  pale  with 
loss  of  blood,  fainting,  falling  beneath  a  cross  ; 
and  on  a  distant  mount,  which  rose  beyond 
Jerusalem,  by  the  light  of  what  seemed  a 
dying  sun,  he  dimly  saw  a  mangled  form 
hanging  on  the  fatal  tree.  In  these  figures, 
which  presented  themselves  in  affecting  and 
terrible  succession,  the  "  seer"  saw  himself — 
none  around  to  weep  for  him  but  some  kind 
women,  nor  any  to  confess  him  but  a  dying 
thief.  Is  it  for  this  he  weeps?  No.  He 
looked  over  the  intermediate  events,  onward 
to  the  future  of  forty  years. 

The  curtain  rose.  Jerusalem  was  before 
him.  "  He  beheld  the  city ;"  not  as  now 
with  the  tide  of  business,  but  the  roar  of  bat- 
tle in  its  streets — torn  by  contending  factions, 
and  Caesar  thundering  at  the  gates — ^brother, 


10  THE  city: 

staggering  from  tlie  famine-struck  house,  to 
strike  his  sword  into  a  brother's  bowels — the 
holiest  laws  of  nature  horribly  reversed :  not 
infants  living  on  the  fountain  of  a  mother's 
breast,  but  mothers — famished,  miserable,  mad- 
dened mothers,  feeding  upon  their  own  off- 
spring; the  breached  and  battered  walls 
manned  by  living  skeletons;  the  streets  re- 
sounding with  the  groans  of  the  dying,  and 
choked  with  the  festering  bodies  of  the  dead. 
How  miserable  the  aspect  of  Jerusalem  I  He 
beholds  scenes  of  sufferings,  which,  as  de- 
scribed by  an  eye  witness,  are  without  a 
parallel  even  in  the  annals  of  the  most  savage 
wars.  Nor  does  the  curtain  fall  on  the  stag(- 
of  this  tragedy  of  many  terrible  acts,  until  th(; 
Roman  torch  has  wrapped  the  city — ^body  and 
limbs,  the  house  of  David,  and  the  house  of 
God — in  one  red  winding  sheet  of  flame,  and 
the  Roman  plough  has  buried  her  guilty  ashes 
in  the  silent  earth. 

It  was  these,  the  guilt  of  Jerusalem  and  the 
sufferings  of  his  countrymen,  that  were  in 
Jesus'    eye.      Hence    this  sorrow   and  thesa 


ITS    SINS   AND   SORROWS.  11 

tears.  Hence,  on  another  occasion,  that  most 
touching  burst  of  pitj,  patriotism,  and  piety  : 
"  0  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  how  often  would  I 
have  gathered  thy  children  together  as  a  hen 
gathereth  her  chickens  under  her  wings,  and 
ye  would  not.  Behold,  your  house  is  left 
unto  you  desolate."  And  at  a  time,  when  we 
should  have  expected,  that  through  the  self- 
ishness inherent  to  suffering,  his  own  sorrows 
would  have  absorbed  all  his  feeling,  hence 
also  that  tender  but  ominous  advice  to. the 
women  who  bewailed  and  lamented  him: — - 
"  Daughters  of  Jerusalem,  weep  not  for  me, 
but  for  yourselves  and  children."  Kestrain 
your  grief,  keep  your  tears  for  a  future  occa- 
sion, reserve  them  for  yourselves,  for  the  babe 
unborn,  the  child  that  hangs  upon  j^our  breast. 
When  Pontius  Pilate — that  unhappy  time- 
server — brought  out  our  Lord  before  the  infu- 
riate multitude,  perhaps  he  cherished  the  hope, 
that  the  pitiftd  sight  would  calm  their  passions, 
as  Jesus'  voice  did  the  blustering  winds  and 
rude  waves  of  Galilee.  And  we  are  told,  that 
aa  Jesus  appeared,   "wearing  the   crown  of 


12  THE  CITY. 

thorns  and  the  purple  robe,"  Pilate  appealed 
to  them,  saying :— "  Behold  the  man."  These 
words  of  a  scene,  which  even  in  its  rudest 
painting,  we  cannot  study  without  emotion — 
although  like  oil  poured,  not  on  the  stormy 
waters,  but  the  roaring  fii-e,  they  only  increas- 
ed and  intensified  the  cry  of  "  crucify  him, 
crucify  him," — may  be  applied  with  propriety 
to  the  scene  before  us.  "  He  wept."  This  was 
not  a  God  weeping — God  cannot  weep.  These 
were  not  angels'  tears — for  angels  never  weep. 
In  them,  in  the  sad  expression  on  his  blessed 
face,  I  say  with  Pilate: — "Behold  the  man  I  " 
the  veritable  man,  bone  of  our  bone,  flesh  of 
our  flesh,  soul  of  our  soul,  heart  of  our  heart, 
strung  by  the  same  hand  and  tuned  to  the 
same  harmony  as  our  own.  How  precious  are 
tliese  sorrows  I  They  attest  his  perfect  man- 
hood. They  assure  us  of  his  sympathy,  when 
we  attempt  to  lay  bare  before  you  the  evils  of 
our  city,  and  rouse  you  to  arrest  and  amend 
them.  They  warrant  us  to  expect  a  blessing 
from  him  who  loved  his  kindred  as  a  man,  and 
his  country   as  a  patriot      From  heaven  he 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  13 

watches  our  fight  with  the  powers  of  darkness, 
and  regards  with  applauding  eje  all — the 
humblest  as  well  as  highest  labored — who, 
sighing  and  crying  "for  the  abominations  that 
are  done  in  the  land,"  labor  to  leave  the  world, 
their  native  country,  or  the  city  of  their  habi- 
tation, somewhat  better  than  they  found  them. 
Before  we  unveil  the  evils  that  call  for  tears, 
and,  as  we  shall  by  and  by  show,  call  for  some 
thing  else  than  tears,  let  us — 

1st.    Look  at  the  city  in  some  of  its  favorabli 

aspects. 

This  earth's  earliest  city  was  built  by  a  mur- 
derer. Its  foundations,  I  may  say,  were  laid 
in  blood.  Enoch  was  its  name,  Cain  was  its 
founder.  Those  who,  living  far  from  the  din 
and  bustle  of  cities,  read  with  a  wonder  that 
grows  into  horror,  the  dark  record  of  their 
courts  and  crimes;  those,  who  see  in  the  blast- 
ing effect  of  their  murky  air  on  flower,  and 
shrub,  and  tree,  only  an  emblem  of  their  with- 
ering influence  on  the  fairest  human  virtues; 
those  simple  cottagers,  who,  tremblingly  alive 
2 


14  THE  omr: 

to  their  danger,  saw  a  son  or  a  daughter  leave 
home  for  the  distant  city,  and  have  received 
her  back  from  a  Magdalene,  or  him  from  a 
prison,  to  expire  in  the  arms  of  forgiving,  but 
broken-hearted  affection,  they  may  fancy  that 
the  curse  of  the  first  murderer  and  their  first 
founder  hangs  over  earth's  cities  —  dark, 
heavy,  as  their  cloud  of  smoke. 

We  can  excuse  them  for  thinking  so.  Great 
cities  some  have  found  to  be  great  curses.  It 
had  been  well  for  many  an  honest  country- 
lad,  and  many  an  unsuspecting  young  woman, 
that  hopes  of  higher  wages  and  opportunities 
of  fortune,  that  the  gay  attire,  and  polished 
tongue,  and  gilded  story  of  some  old  acquaint 
ance,  had  never  turned  their  steps  cityward, 
nor  lured  them  away  from  the  rude  simplicity 
but  safety  of  their  rustic  home.  Many  a  foot 
that  once  lightly  pressed  the  heather  or  brush- 
ed the  dewy  grass,  has  wearily  trodden  in 
darkness  and  guilt  and  sin  these  city  pave- 
ments. Happy  had  it  been  for  many  that  they 
bad  never  exchanged  the  starry  skies  for  the 
lamps  of  the  town,  nor   had  ever  left  their 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  15 

louely  glens,  or  quiet  hamlets,  or  solitary 
shores,  for  the  throng  and  roar  of  our  streets — 
well  for  them,  that  they  had  heard  no  roar 
but  the  river's,  whose  winter  flood  it  had  been 
safer  to  breast;  no  roar  but  ocean's,  whose 
stormiest  waves  it  had  been  safer  to  ride  than 
encounter  the  flood  of  city  temptation,  which 
has  wrecked  their  virtue  and  swept  them  into 
ruin. 

Yet  I  bless  God  for  cities.  I  recognise  a 
wise  and  gracious  providence  in  their  exist- 
ence. The  world  had  not  been  what  it  is  with- 
out them.  The  disciples  were  commanded  to 
"begin  at  Jerusalem,"  and  Paul  threw  himself 
into  the  cities  of  the  ancient  world,  as  offering 
the  most  commanding  positions  of  influence. 
Cities  have  been  as  lamps  of  light,  along  the 
pathway  of  humanity  and  religion.  Within 
them  science  has  given  birth  to  her  noblest 
discoveries.  Behind  their  walls  freedom  has 
fought  her  noblest  battles.  They  have  stood 
on  the  surface  of  the  earth  like  great  break- 
waters, rolling  back  or  turning  aside  the  swell- 
ing tide  of  oppression.     Cities  indeed  have 


16  THE  city: 

been  the  cradles  of  human  liberty.  They 
have  been  the  radiating,  active  centres  of  al- 
most all  church  and  state  reformation.  Hav- 
ing therefore  no  sympathy  with  those  who, 
regarding  them  as  the  excrescences  of  a  tree 
or  the  tumors  of  disease,  would  raze  our  cities 
to  the  ground,  I  bless  God  for  cities.  And 
before  addressing  you  on  their  evils,  will  ad- 
vert to  some  of  their  advantages. 

First,  The  highest  humanity  is  developed  in 
cities. 

Somehow  or  other,  amid  their  crowding  and 
confir.emont,  the  human  mind  finds  its  fullest, 
freest  expansion.  Unlike  the  dwarfed  and 
du^ty  plants  which  stand  around  our  suburban 
villas,  languishing,  like  exiles,  for  the  purer 
air  and  freer  sunshine  that  kiss  their  fellows 
far  away  in  flowery  field  and  green  woodland, 
on  sunny  banks  and  breezy  hills,  man  reaches 
his  highest  condition  amid  the  social  influ- 
ences of  the  crowded  city.  His  intellect  re- 
ceives its  brightest  polish  where  gold  and 
silver  lose  theirs — tarnished  by  the  searching 
smoke  and  foul  vaporis  of  city  air.     The  finest 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  17 

flowers  of  genius  have  grown  in  an  atmos- 
phere  where  those  of  nature  are  prone  to 
droop,  and  difficult  to  bring  to  maturity.  The 
mental  powers  acquire  their  full  robustness 
where  the  cheek  loses  its  ruddy  hue,  and  the 
limbs  their  elastic  step,  and  pale  thought  sits 
on  manly  brows,  and  the  watchman,  as  he 
walks  his  rounds,  sees  the  student's  lamp 
burning  far  into  the  silent  night.  And  as 
aerolites — those  shooting  stars  which,  like  a 
good  man  on  his  path  in  life,  leave  a  train  of 
glory  behind  them  on  the  dusky  sky — are 
supposed  to  catch  fire  by  the  rapidity  of  their 
motion,  as  they  rush  through  the  higher  re- 
gions of  our  atmosphere,  so  the  mind  of  man 
fires,  burns,  shines,  acquires  its  most  dazzling 
brilliancy,  by  the  very  rapidity  of  action  into 
which  it  is  thrown  amid  the  bustle  and  ex- 
citements of  city  life. 

Second,  The  highest  piety  is  developed  in  cities. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  most  active  trades- 
men, the  most  vigorous  laborers,  the  most 
intelligent  artisans,  the  most  enterprising  mer- 
chants, arc  to  be  found  in  cities.  And  if,  just 
2* 


18  THE  city: 

as  in  those  countries  where  tropical  suns  and 
the  same  skies  ripen  the  sweetest  fruits  and 
deadliest  poisons,  you  find  in  the  city  the  most 
daring  and  active  wickedness,  you 'find  there 
also — ^boldly  confronting  it — the  most  active, 
diligent,  zealous,  warm-hearted,  self-denying, 
and  devoted  Christians.  No  blame  to  the 
country  for  that.  Christians  are  like  soldiers 
— it  is  easier  fighting  in  the  regiment,  where 
the  men  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder,  than 
standing  alone  to  maintain  some  solitary  out- 
post. Christians,  to  use  a  familiar  figure,  are 
like  coals,  or  firebrands — they  burn  brightest 
when  gathered  into  heaps.  Christians  are  like 
trees — ^they  grow  the  tallest  where  they  stand 
together  ;  running  no  small  chancC;  like  a 
solitary  tree,  of  becoming  dwarfed,  stunted, 
gnarled,  and  bark -bound,  if  they  grow  alone. 
You  never  yet  saw  a  tall  and  tapering  mast 
which,  catching  the  winds  of  heaven  in  its 
outspread  wings,  impelled  the  gallant  ship  on 
through  the  sea,  and  over  the  rolling  billows, 
but  its  home  had  been  the  forest — there,  with 
its  foot  planted  upon  the  Norwegian  rock,  it 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  19 

grew  amid  neiglibors  that  drew  up  each  orher 
to  the  skies.  So  is  it  with  piety.  The  Chris- 
tian power  that  has  moved  a  sluggish  world 
on,  the  Christian  benevolence  and  energy  that 
have  changed  the  face  of  society,  the  Christian 
zeal  that  has  gone  forth,  burning  to  win  na- 
tions and  kingdoms  for  Jesus,  have,  in  most 
instances,  been  born  and  nursed  in  cities.  To 
the  active  life  and  constant  intercourse  which 
belong  to  them,  religion  has  owed  her  highest 
polish,  and  that  freedom  from  peculiarities 
and  corners,  which  the  stones  of  the  sea-beach 
acquire  by  being  rolled  against  each  other  in 
the  swell  and  surf  of  daily  tides. 

In  rural  districts,  with  all  their  natural  and 
ever-fresh  charms,  a  good  man  often  finds  a 
weary  loneliness;  and  where  field?,  and  hills, 
and  long  miles  separate  him  from  church  and 
Christian  neighbors,  it  needs  an  extraordinary 
measure  of  the  grace  of  God  to  make  his  life 
of  comparative  isolation  "  a  solitude  sweet- 
ened." Give  me  the  city  with  Christian  neigh- 
bors at  my  door,  and  daily  intercourse  with 
genial  and  congenial  spirits.     If  I  fall,  I  have 


20  THE  CITV* 

them  there  that  will  help  me  up  ;  if  I  flag,  I 
have  them  there  that  will  help  me  on ;  if  two 
are  better  than  one,  twenty  are  better  than 
two  ;  and  with  such  opportunities  of  Christian 
fellowship  as  the  city  only  affords,  my  circum- 
stances there  are  much  more  allied  to  those  of 
the  saints  in  glory,  than  his  whose  lot  is  cast 
amid  the  distant  and  scattered  homes  of  rural 
scenes.  He  often  has  to  pursue  his  journey 
through  the  desert — so  far  as  human  intei 
course  is  concerned — all  but  alone,  a  solitary 
pilgrim  to  Canaan.  Manifold  as  are  their 
evils,  their  temptations,  and  their  snares,  it  is 
only  in  cities  that  piety  enjoys  the  full  benefit 
of  the  truth,  **as  iron  sharpeneth  iron,  so  doth 
the  face  of  a  man  his  friend." 

Third,  The  highest  happiness  of  saints  is  found 
in  city  life. 

Man  is  a  social  as  well  as  domestic  being. 
His  arms  may  not,  but  his  heart  can  embrace 
more  than  a  family.  His  nature  is  social. 
His  religion  is  social.  And  as  the  earth's  lofti- 
est peaks  rise  not  in  their  snows  on  some  iso- 
lated hill  that  stands  like  a  lonely  pyramid  ou 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  21 

the  level  plain,  but  where  the  mountains,  as  in 
the  Alps,  or  Andes,  or  Himalayan  range,  are 
grouped  and  massed  together,  so  the  saint's 
most  heavenly  happiness  is  not  attained  in 
solitude,  not  even  within  the  domestic  circle, 
but  where  religious  life  exists  in  its  social 
character.  It  was  for  a  wider  than  a  family 
circle  Jesus  taught  us  the  prayer,  "  Our  Fa- 
ther which  art  in  heaven."  How  sweetly 
these  words  sound,  when  they  rise  in  morning 
or  evening  orisons  from  a  loving  family ! 
How  impressive  that  prayer  appears  when, 
beneath  the  roof  of  some  noble  temple,  a  great 
congregation,  embracing  sovereign  and  sub- 
jects, titled  peer  and  humble  peasant,  rich  and 
poor,  the  lowly  and  the  lofty,  all  on  their 
knees,  and  with  one  voice  uttering  the  words, 
acknowledge  in  men  a  common  brotherhood, 
and  in  God  a  common  Father  I  And  yet  that 
sublime  invocation,  "  Our  Father  which  art  in 
heaven,"  will  never  be  offered  in  its  full  sub- 
limity till  the  swarthy  Negro,  and  the  roving 
Indian,  and  the  wandering  Tartar,  and  the 
homeless  Jew,  and  all  the  pale  and  dark-faced 


22  THE  city: 

tribes  of  men,  send  it  up  swelling  to  the  ear 
of  God,  like  tlie  voice  of  many  waters  and  the 
voice  of  mighty  thunderings.  Then  shall  a 
free  and  glad  world  know  the  tenderness,  the 
breadth  and  the  length  of  the  expression, 
"Oar  Father  which  art  in  heaven." 

In  presenting  heaven  itself  to  us  under  the 
emblem  of  a  city,  the  Bible  bestows  the  palm, 
and  pronounces  the  highest  possible  eulogium 
on  city  life.  "There  are  many  mansions," 
says  our  Lord,  **in  my  Father's  house." 
"  And  I,"  says  John,  "  saw  the  holy  city.  New 
Jerusalem,  coming  down  from  God  out  of 
heaven,  prepared  as  a  bride  adorned  for  her 
husband.  And  I  heard  a  great  voice  out  of 
heaven,  saying.  Behold  the  tabernacle  of  God 
is  with  men,  and  He  will  dwell  with  them, 
and  they  shall  be  his  people,  and  He  their 
God."  Again,  he  says ;  "  He  carried  me  away 
in  the  Spirit  to  a  great  and  high  mountain, 
and  showed  me  that  great  city,  the  holy  Jeru- 
salem, descending  out  of  heaven  from  God, 
having  the  glory  of  God:  and  her  light  was 
like  unto  a  stone  most  precious,  even  like  a 


'     ITS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  23 

jasper  stone,  clear  as  crystal;  and  had  a  wall 
great  and  high,  and  had  twelve  gates,  and  at 
the  gates  twelve  angels."  "And  the  twelve 
gates  were  twelve  pearls ;  every  several  gate 
was  of  one  pearl :  and  the  street  of  the  city 
was  pure  gold,  as  it  were  transparent  glass. 
And  I  saw  no  temple  therein :  for  the  Lord 
God  Almighty  and  the  Lamb  are  the  temple 
of  it.  And  the  city  had  no  need  of  the  sun, 
neither  of  the  moon,  to  shine  in  it :  for  the 
glory  of  God  did  lighten  it,  and  the  Lamb  is 
the  light  thereof."  Again  he  says  :  "  After 
these  things  I  heard  a  great  voice  of  much 
people  in  heaven,  saying,  Halleluiah,  salvation 
and  glory  and  honor  and  power  unto  the 
Lord  our  God.  And  I  heard  as  it  were  the 
voice  of  a  great  multitude,  and  as  the  voice  of 
many  waters,  and  as  the  voice  of  many  thun- 
derings,  saying,  Halleluiah,  for  the  Lord  God 
Omnipotent  reigneth ;  let  us  be  glad  and  re- 
joice, and  give  honor  to  Him,  for  the  marriage 
of  the  Lamb  is  come,  and  His  wife  hath  made 
herself  ready." 

May  we  all  get  an  invitation  to  that  mar- 


24  rHE  cirr: 

riage  I  Crowned  and  robed  in  white,  may  we 
all  be  found  in  the  train  of  that  heavenly  bride  ! 
By  virtue  of  the  new  birth  may  we  all  be  free- 
men of  a  city  never  built  with  hands,  nor 
hoary  with  the  years  of  time — a  city,  whose 
inhabitants  no  census  has  numbered — a  city, 
through  whose  streets  rush  no  tides  of  busi- 
ness, nor  nodding  hearse  creeps  slowly  with 
its  burden  to  the  tomb — a  city,  without  griefs 
or  graves,  without  sins  or  sorrows,  without 
births  or  burials,  without  marriages  or  mourn- 
ings— a  city,  which  glories  in  having  Jesus  for 
its  King,  angels  for  its  guards,  saints  for  itfi 
citizens;  whose  walls  are  Salvation,  and 
whose  gates  are  Praise. 

2dly.  Let  us  attend  to  the  evils  of  the  city  which 
call  f&r  Christian  tearsj  and  for  something  else 
than  tears. 

It  is  said,  "  Jesus  beheld  the  city,"  and  now, 
turning  our  eyes  from  Jerusalem,  let  us  be- 
hold this  city.  Ere  the  heat  of  day  has  cast  a 
raisty  veil  upon  the  scene,  or  ten  thousand 
household  fires  have  polluted  the  transparent 


ITS  SINS   AND  SORMOWS.  26 

air,  I  take  a  Btranger,  to  whom  our  city  pre- 
sents its  beauties  in  all  the  charms  of  novelty, 
and  COD  ducting  his  steps  to  yonder  rocky  ram- 
part, or  some  neighboring  summit,  I  bid  him 
look.  Our  ancient  capital  sits  proudly 
throned  upon  her  romantic  hills.  Gothic 
towers  and  Grecian  temples,  palace,  castle, 
spires,  domes,  monuments  and  verdant  gar- 
dens, picturesquely  mingled,  are  spread  out 
beneath  his  eye ;  and  when  rising  from  the 
waves  of  the  neighboring  ocean,  that  with  am- 
orous arms  embraces  the  land,  the  sun  blazes 
up  to  bathe  all  in  golden  light,  he  bursts  into 
admiration,  and  pronounces  the  scene,  as  well 
he  may,  *'  the  perfection  of  beauty."  Wher- 
ever he  sweeps  his  eye,  he  finds  a  point  of 
view  to  claim  his  admiration.  There  seems 
nothing  here  to  weep  for.  What  rare  variety 
of  hill  and  hollow  I  What  a  happy  combina- 
tion of  ancient  and  modern  architecture ! 
Here,  two  distant  ages  gaze  at  each  other 
across  the  intervening  valley,  while  there,  fit 
ornament  of  a  lone  Highland  glen,  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  city  crowned  with  cannon,  and 
2 


26  THE  city: 

reverberating  the  roar  of  business,  stands  a 
craggy  rock,  proud  emblem  of  our  country's 
strength  and  independence.  What  scene  so 
worthy  of  the  enthusiasm  with  which  the  Jew 
exclaimed,  as  he  surveyed  Jerusalem  from  the 
top  of  Olivet: — "Beautiful  for  situation,  the 
joy  of  the  whole  earth  is  Mount  Zion." 

But  let  our  stranger  be  a  man  of  piety  as 
well  as  a  man  of  taste,  and  he  will  love  the 
city  for  its  Sabbaths,  more  than  for  its  scenery. 
No  loud  street  ciies,  nor  wheels  of  business  or 
of  pleasure,  harshly  grinding  on  holy  ears, 
disturb  the  peace  of  the  hallowed  morning,  oi 
scare  thoughts  of  heaven  from  his  pillow.  If 
music  awakes  him,  it  is  the  song  of  birds  that 
from  neighboring  gardens  call  the  sleeping 
city  to  arise,  and  join  with  nature  in  the 
praises  of  her  God.  A  serene  silence  fills  the 
street,  and  leaves  him  to  hear  the  footfall  of  a 
solitary  passenger  on  the  unfrequented  pave- 
ment. The  morning  meal  and  worship  over, 
the  chime  of  Sabbath  bells  bursts  upon  his 
ear,  accompanied  with  the  tread  of  many  feet 
outside.     He  leaves  the  house  with  us  to  seek 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  27 

the  house  of  God.  An  hour  ago  these  streets 
were  empty,  but  now  such  throngs  are  crowd- 
ing them  as  neither  the  six  days'  business  nor 
pleasure  calls  forth.  Decency  sits  upon  all 
faces;  devoutness  upon  many.  Laughins 
childhood  looks  unusually  grave,  and  cuibiiif^ 
in  its  playful  spirit,  walks  with  a  thoughtfa! 
air.  No  rude  manners,  no  laughter  that  be- 
speaks  the  vacant  mind,  no  gay  conversation 
disturbs  the  ear,  or  ill  accords  with  the  aspect 
of  a  people  who  look  as  if  they  were  bent  on 
some  lofty  purpose — to  be  engaged  in  some 
solemn  yet  not  unhappy  work.  Their  ftces 
give  the  lie  to  a  common  scandal.  They  look 
serious,  but  not  sour— they  wear  an  air  of 
gravity,  but  not  of  gloom.  Imagine  that  oui 
stranger  has  come  from  a  land— from  a  city, 
such  as  Paris,  for  instance — where  it  may  be 
said  of  the  door  of  the  church,  as  of  the 
"strait  gate,"  ^'few  there  be  that  find  it;" 
where  Sabbath  bells  are  drowned  in  the  roar 
of  business,  where  labor  only  leaves  the  streets 
to  give  place  to  gaiety,  and  make  room  for  the 
dance  of  pleasure ;  where  the  workman  lays* 


28  THE  CITY: 

down  his  tools,  and  the  merchant  locks  his 
door  to  whirl  away  the  evening  in  Sunday 
ball-rooms,  or  applaud  in  the  crowded  theatre. 
With  what  astonishment  he  gazes  on  the 
crowd.  Onward  it  sweeps,  by  the  closed 
doors  and  windows  of  every  place  of  business, 
to  discharge  itself  by  different  streams  into 
more  than  a  hundred  churches,  and  leave 
the  thoroughfares  to  resume  the  aspect  of  a 
''deserted  city,"  until  the  close  of  holy  ser- 
vices again  pours  forth  the  living  tide— all 
setting  homewards,  many,  we  trust,  heaven- 
wards. 

Such  is  the  scene  our  city  presents  on  Sab- 
bath days.  Long  may  it  continue.  Behold- 
ing the  city  thus,  our  stranger  sees  nothing  to 
deplore.  On  the  contrary,  as  David  in  his  ex- 
ile envied  the  swallow  which  had  her  nest  by 
the  altar,  and  could  fly  on  joyous  wing  at  all 
times  into  the  house  of  God,  he  envies  us  our 
Scottish  Sa,bbaths,  and  land  of  precious  priv- 
ileges. Of  a  city  where  God  is  so  honored, 
his  day  is  so  hallowed,  his  temples  are  so 
thronged,  he  is  ready  to  say,  "  The  Lord  hath 


ITS   SINS  AND  SORROWS.  29 

chosen  Zion,  he  hath  d3sired  it  for  his  habita- 
tion. This  is  my  rest  for  ever ;  here  will  I 
dwell." 

Such  is  the  aspect  in  which  the  city  may  be 
presented.  But,  like  the  famed  shield,  which, 
because  they  saw  it  from  opposite  sides,  one 
man  asserted  to  be  made  of  silver,  and  an- 
other of  inferior  metal,  it  presents  two  widely 
different  aspects.  Let  us  turn  it  round,  and 
look  on  the  other  side. 

I  know,  and  I  bless  God  for  it,  that  there  is 
much  good,  that  there  is  a  more  than  ordinary 
proportion  of  godly  people  within  our  walls. 
No  sojourner  has  to  tremble  here,  as  Abraham 
did  in  Gerar,  saying,  "  Surely  the  fear  of  God 
is  not  in  this  place."  I  will  venture  to  say 
that  no  city  of  its  population  and  extent  con- 
tains more,  few,  indeed,  so  many,  of  those  who 
are  the  light  of  the  world,  and  the  salt  of  the 
earth.  In  no  large  city,  perhaps,  is  the  Sab- 
bath so  well  observed,  and  will  there  be  found 
such  a  proportion  of  the  peop' .  in  the  regular 
habit  of  attending  a  house  of  God.  If  the 
number  ot  our  churches  may  be  taken  as  a 
3* 


30  THE   CITY: 

test  of  piety,  if  the  number  of  our  hospitals 
and  asylams  may  be  taken  as  a  guage  of  be- 
nevolence, if  the  number  of  our  schools  and 
colleges  may  be  taken  as  a  standard  of  intelli- 
gence, then,  more  than  for  its  romantic  beauty 
and  picturesque  position,  it  bears  away  the 
palm  from  all  rival  capitals,  and  sits  en- 
throned and  unchallenged  as  "  Queen  of 
Cities."  Now  I  know  all  that.  Yet,  as  there 
are  scenes  in  nature  where  sylvan  beauty  is 
associated  with  features  of  a  stern  and  savage 
character,  as  I  have  seen  a  lovely  lake,  with 
its  gems  of  islands,  lie  sleeping  under  the 
shadow,  while  the  woodbine,  and  holly,  and 
evergreen  ivy  clothed  the  feet  of  a  mountain 
which  was  rent  into  gloomy  gorges,  and  reared 
its  thunder-riven,  naked  peaks  into  the  sky, 
there  is  much  that  is  vicious  amid  all  the 
grace,  aod  much  that  is  impious  amid  all  the 
piety  of  our  city.  If  that  is  true  of  this  city, 
let  the  public  be  assured  that  it  is  no  less  true 
of  every  large  city  in  the  kingdom.  Which 
of  them  shall  say  to  us,  "  Stand  aside,  I  am 
liolier  than  thou?" 


ITS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  81 

r  once  heard  a  venerable  minister,  when  he 
Came  in  the  course  of  his  public  prayers  to  ask 
the  blessing  of  heaven  upon  our  town,  pray 
that  God  would  have  mercy  upon  this  great 
and  wicked  city.  Now  I  can  fancy  that  the 
stranger  whom  we  have  conducted  through 
its  streets  on  the  Sabbath,  and  who  has  only 
mingled  in  its  serious  and  most  select  society, 
would  listen  with  astonishment  to  such  an  ac- 
count of  us,  either  from  the  pulpit  or  any- 
where else.  It  gave  offence,  deep  offence,  to 
some  who  were  proud  of  their  native  place. 
Yet,  whether  the  charge  excite  surprise  or  of- 
fence, this  is  a  wicked  as  well  as  a  great  city. 
And  he  heals  "  the  hurt  of  the  daughter  of 
God's  people  slightly,"  he  is  "  a  dumb  dog  that 
cannot  bark,"  who  conceals  that  fact  from 
either  himself  or  others. 

Under  a  fair  and  beautiful  exterior,  there  is 
an  extent  of  corruption,  vile  corruption,  loath- 
some corruption,  which  has  only  to  be  laid 
bare  to  astonish  all,  and,  I  believe,  to  sicken 
many.  Propriety  forbids  details.  Ordinary 
modesty,  not  to  say  sensitive  delicacy,  would 


32  THE  CITT: 

sbrmk  from  them.  Otherwise  I  could  raise  a 
curtain,  I  could  reveal  that  which  would  make 
jour  hair  stand  on  end.  Well  may  godly  pa- 
rents tremble  for  the  virtue  of  their  children, 
and  every  holy  mother,  taking  alarm,  gather 
them  beneath  her  wings,  as  the  moor  bird 
does  her  helpless  brood  when  hawks  are 
screaming  in  the  sky.  I  tell  you  who  are  pa- 
rents, you  who  are  the  guardians  of  youth, 
that  you  have  more  need  to  keep  an  eye  on 
the  company  and  hours  of  your  children,  than 
look  to  the  bolts  and  bars  you  trust  to  for  pro- 
tection against  housebreakers  and  midnight- 
robbers.  We  have  heard  much  of  these. 
Alive  to  what  affects  the  security  of  their 
property,  the  public  have  been  seized  with 
alarm,  and  houses,  if  not  streets,  are  barricad- 
ed. But  there  is  more  in  peril  than  your  gold 
and  silver.  There  is  something  better  worth 
guarding,  and  more  needing  to  be  guarded, 
than  anything  which  iron-barred  shutters  can 
secure,  or  watchmen  protect.  There  are  more 
dangerous  characters  than  robbers  prowling 
about   our  town,   and  w^alking  unchallenged 


ITS  SINS  AND  SOREOWS.  83 

on  our  streets — ^permitted  by  our  laws  to  do 
what  they  dare  not  in  Paris  or  Berlin,  to  pur- 
sue their  infamous  occupation  with  barefaced, 
and  shameless,  and  bold  effrontery.  The 
sword,  which  should  be  a  terror  to  evil-doers, 
rusts  in  its  sheath.  And  when  vice  is  allowed 
so  to  parade  our  streets  as  to  interfere  with 
the  freedom  of  virtuous  families,  and  so  to 
establish  herself  among  us,  as,  by  creating  the 
worst  of  all  nuisances,  to  destroy  the  property 
of  a  neighborhood,  surely  the  substance  of 
liberty  is  sacrificed  to  its  shadow,  and  the  evil- 
doer protected  at  the  expense  of  the  good. 

Some  of  us  are  about  to  make  a  new  effort 
for  the  reclamation  of  fallen  woman,  and  the 
protection  of  such  as  are  willing,  Magdalene- 
like, to  bathe  Christ's  feet  with  tears,  and 
wash  away  their  deep  sins  in  his  blood.  As  a 
preliminary  step  to  this  Christian  enterprise, 
we  have  procured  accurate  statistics  of  the  ex- 
tent of  this  great  sin  and  sorrow  of  our  large 
cities.  Of  them,  I  will  say  nothing  more  than 
this,  that,  while  they  were  read,  men  held 
down  their  heads  with  shame,  or  held  up  their 


84  THE   CITY: 

hands  in  horror,  or  burst  out  into  expressions 
of  deep  indignation. 

By  that  raveniog  wolf  that  wastes  our  folds, 
I  had  seen  one  and  another,  and  another,  and 
another  lamb  plucked  out  of  this  very  flock. 
I  had  seen  the  once  fair  and  promising  flowers 
that  I  had  cultivated  in  this  very  garden  cast 
forth,  and,  as  vilest  weeds,  trodden  in  the 
mire  of  the  public  streets.  I  had  seen  the  fall 
of  a  daughter — that  bitterest  of  domestic  mis- 
eries— blanch  a  mother's  head,  and,  still  more 
terrible  to  look  on,  turn  a  father's  heart  intc 
stone.  I  had  known  how  a  mother,  when  w( 
all  were  sleeping  in  peace,  with  weary  foo^ 
and  weeping  eyes,  had  gone,  Christ-like,  U{ 
and  down  these  streets — searching  many  » 
den  of  sin  to  seek  and  save  her  lost  one.  ] 
had  seen  enough  to  make  a  man  exclaim,  witl: 
Jeremiah,  "  0 !  that  mine  eyes  were  tears, 
and  mine  head  a  fountain  of  waters,  that  I 
might  weep  day  and  night  for  the  daughter 
of  my  people  !"  But  never,  never  had  we  so 
much  as  fancied  the  extent  and  horrors  of  this 
evil,  the  number  of  short-lived  victims  it  de- 


ITS   SINS    AND   SORROWS.  36 

vours,  the  bold  cLiring  with  whicli  the  ac- 
cursed trade  is  |jursued,  the  invisible  nets  that 
are  spread  across  the  path  of  unsuspecting  in- 
nocence, the  fiendishly-ingenious  methods 
which  are  plied  to  snare  virtue,  what  masks 
of  friendship  are  worn,  what  cunning  arts  of 
apparent  kindness  resorted  to  that  vice  may 
get  the  victims  within  her  grasp,  and  drag 
them  down  to  hell  I  I  do  believe  that  were 
the  villainy  and  iniquity  that  are  working  and 
festering  here  and  elsewhere — in  every  such, 
large  city — ^laid  bare  before  the  eyes  of  public 
virtue,  nothing  would  restrain  its  indignation. 
Men  would  take  the  law  into  their  own  hands. 
Men  would  be  a  law  unto  themselves ;  and  by 
what  many  might  condemn  as  illegal,  but  oth- 
ers would  applaud  as  a  virtuous  outbreak, 
they  would  sweep  our  cities  clean  of  these 
panderers  of  vice,  and  dens  of  iniquity. 

It  is  not  of  property,  but  of  virtue,  that 
families  are  plundered.  It  is  not  life,  but 
souls,  that  are  murdered  among  us.  Crimes 
are  done  that  to  my  eye  cast  into  the  shade 
tlie  guilt  of  him  who,  having  through  a  trade 


36  THE  CITY; 

of  murder  supplied  subjects  for  tlie  dissecting- 
room,  was  received  on  the  scaffold  bj  the  roar 
of  a  maddened  crowd,  and  launched  into  eter- 
nity amid  shouts  of  public  indignation.  That 
old  legend  of  a  monster,  to  satisfy  whose  vora- 
cious appetite  a  city  had  year  by  year  to 
sacrifice  a  number  of  its  virgins,  who,  amid 
the  lamentations  of  their  mothers  and  the 
grief  of  their  kindred,  were  led  away  trem- 
bling to  his  bloody  den,  is  no  fable  here. 
That  monster  is  amongst  us.  And  if  there  is 
no  other  way  of  calling  forth  some  champions 
to  do  him  battle,  of  rousing  the  public  from 
their  supineness,  of  stirring  up  the  minister  in 
the  pulpit  to  draw  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  and 
the  magistrate  on  the  bench  to  draw  the  sword 
of  the  state,  it  may  be  necessary  to  throw  this 
report  out  of  its  present  secresy,  and  leave  it 
to  burst  upon  the  city  like  a  shell. 

I  am  guilty  of  no  exaggeration.  I.ask  you, 
meanwhile,  to  believe  that — and  that,  with  all 
our  apparent  goodness,  there  lies  beneath  the 
surface  much  which  no  Christian  man  could 
behold,   without-— like   our   pure   and   pitiful 


ITS  SENS  AND  SORROWS.  37 

Saviour — weeping  over  it.  I  know  enough 
to  call  upon  the  young  to  shun  the  associate, 
who  is  infected  with  vice,  more  than  the  one 
infected  with  plague  or  deadly  fever.  Keep 
away  from  them  that  are  going  down  to  hell, 
more  than  from  the  grasp  of  a  drowning  man. 
'*  My  son,  hear  the  instruction  of  thy  father, 
and  forsake  not  the  law  of  thy  mother."  "  If 
sinners  entice  thee,  consent  thou  not."  "  Keep 
thy  heart  with  all  diligence."  "Ponder  the 
path  of  thy  feet,"  that  they  may  never  follow 
one  of  wliom  it  is  written — "  Her  feet  go  down 
to  death,  her  steps  take  liold  on  hell." 

I  also  know  enough  to  implore  parents, 
most  prayerfully,  to  commit  their  children  to 
the  keeping  of  ^  all-present  God.  Guard 
them  sedulously.  Fold  them  early.  Before 
the  night  brings  out  the  ravenous  wolf,  and 
the  wily  fox,  and  the  roaring  lion,  have  all 
your  lanjDs  at  home.  Make  it  a  bright,  cheer- 
ful home.  Mingle  firmness  with  kindness. 
And  from  late  hours,  from  dangerous  com- 
panions, from  nightly  scenes  of  pleasure  and 

amusement,  more  carefully  keep  your  children 
4 


38  THE  CITY:    ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS. 

than  you  bolt  door  or  window  against  those, 
who  can  but  plunder  your  house  of  property, 
that  is  of  infinitely  less  value  than  your 
domestic  purity,  of  jewels,  infinitely  less  pre- 
cious than  your  children's  souls. 


SERMON    II. 

**  He  beheld  the  city,  and  wept  over  it" — Luke  air.  4L 

WITHOUT  driver,  without  hand  to  curb 
or  guide  him,  a  startled,  maddened  horse, 
with  snowy  foam  speckling  his  mane,  and  the 
fire  flashing  from  his  heels,  was  once  seen 
tearing  along  through  a  country  village.  He 
dragged  a  cart  behind  him.  A  little  child 
was  in  it,  who,  every  moment  in  danger  of 
being  dashed  upon  the  road,  clung  to  its  sides 
in  pale  terror.  A  woman,  as  it  passed,  shot 
from  her  doorway,  like  an  arrow  from  the 
bow-string.  With  outstretched  arms,  dishevel- 
led hair,  and  flying  feet,  she  followed  in  full 
pursuit,  filling  the  street  with  cries — that 
might  have  pierced  a  heart  of  stone — ^"  Save 
that  child  ;  save  that  child  !"  Whereupon  a 
man,  who  had  not  humanity  enough  to  join 
the  chase  and  swell  the  cry,  far  less  bravery 


40  THE  city: 

enougli,  at  his  own  peril,  to  throw  himself 
across  the  path  and  seize  the  reins,  coolly 
turned  round  on  her  to  bid  her  cease  her 
cries,  saying,  "  Woman,  it  is  not  your  child." 
The  information  was  not  new  to  her.  She 
had  left  all  her  own  safe  in  their  nest  at 
home.  Nor  did  that  heartless  speech  for  a 
moment  arrest  her  step,  or  still  the  cry  of 
"  Save  that  child  ;  save  that  child !" 

In  that  circumstance  we  have  more  than  a 
touching  example  of  the  tenderness  of  a 
woman's  heart.  It  illustrates  the  spirit  of  the 
gospel.  A  noble  and  generous  woman  1  Sho 
was  imbued  with  the  large  loving-heartednesii 
that  is  unhappy  if  others  are  miserable,  that 
will  not  eat  its  own  bread  and  drink  its  own 
cup  alone,  that  is  not  content  to  be  safe  with- 
out also  saving.  There,  in  these  outstretched 
arms,  that  anxious  cry,  those  feet  that  hasten 
to  save,  you  see,  standing  out  in  beautiful  con- 
trast to  selfishness,  the  broad,  wide,  warm 
benevolence  of  the  gospel,  the  spirit  of  Cal- 
vary, the  mind  that  was  in  Jesus  Christ — and 
which,  let   me   add,  is  in  all  that  are  Jesus 


ITS  SINS  AND   SOEROWS.  41 

Christ's.     This  furnishes  a  touchstone  for  test- 
ing a  religious  profession. 

A  man,  I  pray  you  to  observe,  may  be  a 
true  Christian,  who  falls  even  into  grievous 
sin.  Many  a  bark  with  sprung  masts,  and  torn 
sails,  and  shattered  bulwarks,  gains  the  port. 
And  many  a  man  gets  to  heaven  who  has  been 
all  but  wrecked.  Indeed,  "the  righteous 
scarcely  are  saved,"  and  the  vessel  which  has 
her  head  laid  heavenward,  keeping  careless 
watch,  and  thrown,  so  to  speak,  on  her  beam 
ends,  by  some  sudden  gust  of  temptation,  may 
all  but  founder.  In  Bible  story,  as  well  as  other 
records  of  Christian  experience,  how  many  sol- 
emn warnings  have  we  to  watch  and  pray ; 
how  much  that  rolls  out  the  loud  alarum, 
"  Let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth  take  heed 
lest  he  fall."  We  do  not  say  that  a  Christian 
man  cannot  fall  into  sin.  Yet  it  is  one  thmg 
to  fall  into  sin,  it  is  another  to  lie  in  it,  to  love 
it,  to  seek  it,  to  court  it,  to  pursue  it,  to  enjoy 
it — as  it  is  pursued  and  enjoyed  by  those  who, 
in  place  of  rejecting  it,  "  like  gravel  in  the 
mouth,"  '*  roll  it  as  a  sweet  morsel  under  theii 
4* 


42  THE  city: 

tongue."  It  is  one  thing,  being  overcome  of 
evil,  to  be  the  devil's  captive — bewitched,  be- 
guiled, caught  in  a  snare  and  cast  into  dark- 
ness— and  another  to  be  a  base  deserter,  a  bold 
soldier,  fighting  in  the  ranks  of  Satan. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  excuse  or  even  palliate 
those  sins  in  good  men  which  crucify  the  Lord 
afresh,  and  inflict  the  deepest  wounds  upon  his 
bleeding  side.  Yet  the  sin,  which  has  set 
loose  many  a  ribald  tongue,  which  they  "  tell 
in  Gath,  and  publish  in  the  streets  of  Askeloii," 
which  fills  the  church  with  grief,  and  makes 
the  world  ring  with  scandal,  which,  as  when 
some  shot  in  battle  dismounts  a  cannon,  or  ex- 
plodes a  magazine,  or  cuts  down  a  man  of 
mark,  is  hailed  by  the  enemy  with  shouts  of 
triumph,  even  such  a  sin  may  say  less  against 
a  man's  piety,  than  the  love  that  embraces  the 
lost,  and  a  deep  interest  in  the  best  welfare  of 
others,  say  for  it.  Look  at  Noah  beneath  the 
mantle  which  filial  piety  has  flung  over  him. 
Look  at  Peter  denying  his  master.  Look  at 
the  saintly  David  covered  with  blushes  and 
confusion,  and  cowering  under  the  fixed  and 


ITS   SINS   AND   SOKKOWS.  43 

eagle  eye  of  him,  wlio  points  his  finger,  say- 
ing, "  Thou  art  the  man  I"  Such  scenes,  even 
such  scenes  in  a  man's  life,  do-  not  present  an 
aspect  of  character  incompatible  with  a  true 
and  genuine  piety.  But  such  an  aspect  is 
presented  by  many  a  decent  man  who  never 
brought  a  scandal  on  religion,  yet  never  be- 
held the  city  to  weep  over  it,  never  spent  one 
anxious  thought  on  any  interests  but  his  own, 
never  spared  a  tear  for  any  losses  but  his  own, 
never,  so  be  that  his  own  nest  was  warmly 
feathered,  troubled  himself  about  others' 
wants,  nor  cared  wliat  came  of  them,  if  he  ac- 
complished his  own  selfish  ends.  The  sins  of 
a  good  man  are  but  the  diseases  of  life — the 
irregular  palpitations  of  a  living  heart ;  but 
that  cold  indifference,  that  unfeeling  selfish- 
ness— these  are  the  rigidity  and  frigidity  of 
death. 

I  remember  a  remark  which  once  dropped 
from  the  lips  of  an  aged  minister.  The  sub- 
ject of  his  discourse  was  our  Lord's  last  suf- 
ferings. And  when  lie  narrated  liow  they  had 
brought  him  to  Calvary  and  nailed  him  on 


44  THE  city: 

the  tree,  and  was  telling  hew  the  impenitent 
thief  turned  on  his  cross — a  dying  man  to 
mock  a  dj^ng  Saviour — he  stopped  to  remark, 
that  while  there  was  almost  no  sin  which  a 
child  of  God  might  not  fall  into,  there  was 
one  thing  which  he  had  never  read  of  a  good 
man  doing,  and  which  he  believed  no  good 
man  had  ever  done  or  would  do — he  would 
never  sit  in  the  scorner's  chair,  nor  make  a 
mock  of  piety.  And  another  such  test  of 
real  religion  this  subject  presents.  It  may  also 
be  employed  to  prove  the  truth  or  falsehood 
of  our  profession.  I  venture  to  affirm,  that 
however  great  his  faults  may  be,  no  man  of 
God,  no  man  animated  by  the  spirit  of  Jesus 
Christ,  no  child  baptized  into  the  nature  as 
well  as  name  of  that  heavenly  Father,  who  is 
unwilling  that  any  should  perish — no  man 
allied  to  those  angelic  beings,  who  minister  to 
suffering  saints,  and  rejoice  in  the  conversion 
of  the  lowest  of  the  lost — no  man  imbued 
with  the  love  which,  to  save  the  most  wicked, 
most  worthless,  and  most  wretched  of  us,  left 
the  Father's  bosom  to  hang  in  infancy  on  a 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  45 

woman's  breast,  and  bang  in  death  on  a  bloody 
tree — will  refuse  to  lend  me  a  willing  ear, 
Avlien  I  lay  open  the  sores  and  sprrows,  and 
plead  for  the  souls  of  men.  Of  too  many  this 
may  be  true  : — "They  lie  upon  beds  of  ivory, 
and  stretch  themselves  upon  their  couches, 
and  eat  the  lambs  out  of  the  flock,  and  the 
calves  out  of  the  midst  of  the  stall ;  they 
chant  to  the  sound  of  the  viol,  and  invent  to 
themselves  instruments  of  music,  like  David; 
they  drink  wine  in  bowls,  and  anoint  them- 
selves with  the  chief  ointments,  but  they  are 
not  grieved  for  the  affliction  of  Joseph."  But 
I  cast  myself  with  confidence  upon  God'ji 
people.  I  resume  my  subject,  and  proceed  to 
set  forth  the  sins  and  sorrows  of  our  cities — 
fully  assured  that  I  shall  not  meet  from  lips 
which  the  altar-coal  has  touched,  the  words 
with  which  the  murderers  of  our  Lord  thrust 
forth  the  traitor — "  What  is  that  to  us?  See 
thou  to  that." 

II.  The  intemperance   of  the   city— or,  to 
uso   a  plainer   term,  to  call  things  by  their 


46  THE  city: 

right  names,  to  be  done  with  sacrificing  men's 
souls  and  public  morals  to  a  spurious  delicacy, 
to  make  vice  as  disgusting  and  detestable  as 
possible,  to  rub  off  the  paint  that  conceals  the 
rotten  cheek,  let  me  say,  in  plain  broad  Saxon, 
its  Drunkenness. 

Our  subject  is  one  for  the  pulpit.  From 
preachers  it  claims  more  notice  and  warning, 
more  plain  denunciation  and  earnest  pleading, 
than,  perhaps,  it  usually  receives.  Soma 
might  be  better  pleased  were  I,  instead  of 
conducting  them  through  loathsome  scenes,  to 
be  their  guide  into  the  temple — to  show  them, 
in  succession,  the  sublime  mysteries  of  our 
faith.  But  what  saith  the  Lord:  "Son  of 
^lan,  I  have  set  thee  a  watchman  unto  the 
house  of  Israel,  therefore  thou  shalt  hear  the 
word  from  my  mouth,  and  warn  them  from 
me.  When  I  say  unto  the  wicked  man.  Thou 
shalt  surely  die,  if  thou  dost  not  speak  to 
warn  the  wicked  man  from  his  way,  that 
wicked  man  shall  die  in  his  iniquity,  bui  his 
blood  will  I  require  at  thine  hand."  Again, 
what  saith  the  Lord  :  "  Set  the  trumpet  to  thy 


ITS   SINS  AND   SORROWS.  47 

moutli.  Blow  je  the  trumpet  in  Zion^  and 
sound  an  alarm  in  my  holy  mountain."  Are 
people  concerned  for  the  honor  of  the  temple  ? 
How  can  they  so  well  express  this  feeling  as 
oy  attempting  with  Jesus  to  purify  its  courts? 
Is  the  Lord,  as  some  think,  coming  ?  Let  us 
go  forth,  like  John  Baptist — forerunners  to 
prepare  his  way.  Have  we  asked  of  them 
who  keep  ward  and  watch  on  the  towers  of 
Zion,  "  Watchman,  what  of  the  night  ? 
Watchman,  what  of  the  night  ?"  and  got  back 
the  startling  answer,  "  The  morning  cometh 
and  also  the  night?"  The  more  need  have  we 
to  abandon  all  airy  speculation,  and  betake 
ourselves  to  the  practical  work  of  setting  heart 
and  house,  town  and  country,  church  and 
state  in  order.  Let  us  all  get  ready,  and  get 
all  things  ready  for  Christ's  second  coming. 
Laying  aside  the  telescopes  which  we  had 
turned  in  the  expected  direction,  let  us  gird 
up  our  loins,  go  down  into  the  field  of  work, 
make  straight  what  is  crooked,  and  smooth 
what  is  rough,  and,  preparing  his  way,  remove 


48  THE  oirr: 

whatever  -would  offend  the  eye  of  our  coming 
King. 

The  apostles  were  not  content  to  preach 
only  what  are  called  doctrinal  discourses.  In 
the  texture  both  of  their  sermons  and  epistles, 
thej  wove  up  doctrine  and  dut}^  together. 
These  were  mingled  as  the  woof  and  warp  of 
that  loom,  where  the  flying  shuttle  weaves  the 
sail  with  which  men  catch  the  winds  of  heav- 
en, and  impel  the  bark  onwards  to  her  desired 
haven.  We  see  these  inspired  preachers  com- 
ing down  to  the  common  business  and  practi- 
cal duties  of  life — down  from  the  throne  of 
God — ^from  the  heights  of  the  cross — from  re- 
gions of  such  high  speculation,  that  Peter 
owns  himself  to  have  lost  sight  of  Paul,  just 
as  in  summer  da}^,  when  watching  the  lark  as 
she  rose  from  the  dewy  grass,  we  have  seen 
her  mount  up  on  untiring  wing,  till  she  be- 
came a  mere  dark  speck  upon  the  blue  sk}^, 
and  then,  although  her  song  still  came  ringing 
down,  vanished  from  our  field  of  vision. 
From  heights  so  lofty  the  men,  who  were 
aioved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  descended  tc  expa- 


ITS   SINS  AND  SORROWS.  49 

tiate  on  tlie  most  common  topics  that  belong 
to  practical  piety.  They  taught  masters  how- 
to  rule,  and  servants  how  to  work.  They 
taught  husbands  how  to  love,  and  children 
how  to  obey.  They  laid  down  rules  for  a 
bishop's  table.  They  no  more  thought  it  be- 
neath their  dignity  to  tell  young  women  how 
to  attire  their  heads  and  dress  their  hair,  than 
to  warn  young  men  to  "  flee  youthful  lusts." 
They  lifted  up  their  warning  against  the  sins 
of  ordinary  life.  They  raised  beacons  on 
every  quicksand  and  sunken  rock.  They 
buoyed  out  the  channel  of  salvation.  De- 
scribing with  downright  plainness  those  fruits 
of  the  flesh  which  exclude  from  the  kingdom, 
they  did  not  sacrifice  God's  truth,  human  vir- 
tue, and  precious  souls  upon  the  altar  of  a 
false  and  spurious  delicacy.  They  went  in 
among  corruption,  like  the  sunbeam  which 
shows  it,  but  suffers  no  taint  through  the  con- 
tact. Descending  from  the  loftiest  to  the  low- 
liest subjects,  theirs  was  the  course  of  the 
eagle,  which,  now  on  cloud-cleaving  wing, 
mounts  upwards — soaring  out  of  sight — and 
5 


50  THE   CITY: 

now  sweeps  down  to  brush  the  heather,  or  set- 
tie  in  her  rocky  nest.  Overleaping  all  the 
laws  of  spurious  delicacy,  theirs  was  the  noble 
spirit  of  the  Eoman.  Men  placed  him  at  the 
bar  of  his  country.  They  charged  him  with  a 
violation  of  her  laws.  Fresh  from  the  fight, 
covered  with  the  blood  of  a  battle-field  where 
he  had  led  his  country's  armies  to  victory,  he 
replied,  "I  have  broken  the  law,  but  I  have 
saved  the  state."  And  could  I,  by  God's  bless- 
ing, save  a  sinner,  could  I  pluck  some  perish- 
ing one  from  ruin,  could  I  successfully  warn 
that  young  man  or  young  woman  who,  all  un- 
conscious of  their  danger,  are  drawing  near 
the  brink  of  destruction,  I  would  throw  deli- 
cacy to  the  winds,  saying,  I  have  broken  its 
laws,  but  I  have  saved  a  soul. 

With  what  plainness  of  speech  did  Pa,ul 
v/arn  I  with  what  truth  and  tenderness  did  he 
plead!  He  looks  on  sinners  as  a  trembling 
mother  on  her  rash  boy,  when  hanging  half 
way  over  some  beetling  cliff*,  he  stretches 
down  his  hand  to  pluck  from  the  rock  its  wild 
and   withering    flowers.      "  As  mj   beloved 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  51 

sons,"  Paul  cries,  "  I  warn  you."  lie  exhorts 
Timothy  to  rebuke  "in  season  and  out  of  sea- 
son." He  eschews  those  general  denunciations 
of  sin  that  are  as  little  felt  as  general  confes- 
sions of  it  are ;  that,  like  things  with  broad 
blunt  points,  neither  pierce  the  skin  nor  pene- 
trate the  sore.  The  apostle  enters  into  partic- 
ulars. One  by  one,  name  by  name,  sin  by 
sin,  he  writes  out,  on  several  occasions,  the 
long  black  catalogue  of  prevailing  vices. 
And  in  these,  as  if,  like  the  poisoned  garment 
that  stuck  to  Hercules,  it  could  not  be  plucked 
from  the  body  of  humanity,  this  vice  of  drunk- 
enness— the  sin,  the  ^hame,  the  weakness  of 
our  nation — finds  a  never  failing  and  promi- 
nent place.  It  is  the  weakness  as  well  as  sir 
and  shame  of  our  nation.  The  world  knows 
that.  Other  nations  taunt  us  with  that.  Nor 
do  scenes  at  home  allow  me  to  forget  the 
strange  but  stinging  *  rem  ark  of  a  foreigner 
who  said,  "It  is  a  blessed  thing  for  the  world 
that  you  Anglo-Saxons  are  a  drunken  race. 
Such  are  your  powers,  and  energy,  and  talent, 
that  otherwise  you  would  have  become  mas 


52  THE  city: 

ters  of  the  world !"     So  mncli  for  taking  up 
the  subject.     Now  let  us  look  — 

1.   To  the  extent  of  this  vice. 

First,  In  our  country.  ISTo  good  cause  has 
ever  but  suffered  from  injudicious  zeal  and 
extravagant  statements.  Eegard  for  truth  and 
my  very  anxiety  to  see  this  evil  arrested, 
unite  in  preventing  me  from  indulging  in 
exaggeration — were  it  possible  here  to  exag- 
iterate.  I  say.  possible  to  exaggerate ;  for 
what  flight  of  fancy,  what  bold  strokes  of 
painting,  what  graphic  powers  of  description, 
could  convey  any  adequate  idea  of  the  evils 
and  sorrows  that  march  in  the  train  of  this 
direful,  and  most  detestable  vice  ?  Standing 
on  the  surf-beaten  shore,  when  ocean,  lashed 
by  the  tempest  into  foaming  rage,  was  up  in 
her  angry  might,  I  have  seen  a  spectacle  so 
grand ;  and  where  she  touched  in  the  valley, 
arrayed  in  a  gay  robe  of  summer  flowers,  I 
have  seen  nature  so  beautiful ;  and  where  rat- 
tling thunders  mingled  with  the  roar  of  the 
avalanche;  while  high  above  the  dark  mjste- 


ITS  SINS  AND  SOREOWS.  53 

rious  gorge,  within  which  the  battle  of  elements 
was  waging,  rose  clear  and  serene  untrodden 
peaks  of  eternal  snow,  I  have  looked  upon 
scenes  so  sublime,  as  to  pass  description.  Nor 
color  nor  words  can  convey  an  adequate  idea 
of  them.  To  be  understood  they  must  be 
visited,  to  be  felt  they  must  be  seen. 

Incredible  as  it  may  appear,  this  remark  is 
no  less  true  of  many  regions  of  sorrow,  and 
starvation^  and  disease,  and  vice,  and  devilry, 
and  death,  that  the  smoke-stained  walls  of 
these  dingy  houses  hide  from  common  view. 
These  formed  for  years  the  painful  field  of  my 
labors.  Let  no  man  fancy  that  we  select  the 
worst  cases,  that  we  present  the  worst  side  of 
the  picture  before  them.  Believe  me,  it  is  im- 
possible to  exaggerate,  impossible  even  trath- 
fally  to  paint  the  effect  of  this  vice'  either  on 
those  who  are  addicted  to  it,  or  those  who 
suffer  from  it — crushed  husbands,  broken- 
hearted wives,  and  most  of  all,  those  poor 
innocent  children  that  are  dying  under  cruelty 
and  starvation,  that  shiver  in  their  rags  upon 
our  streets,  that  walk  the  winter  snows  witb 
6* 


64  THE   CITY: 

naked  feet,  and  with  their  matted  hair,  and 
hollow  cheeks,  and  sunken^  ejes,  and  sallow 
countenances,  glare  out  on  us,  wild  and  savage- 
like, from  these  patched  and  dusty  windows. 
Besdes,  if  the  extent  of  this  evil  has  been  ex- 
aggerated, it  is  a  fault  that  may  be  pardoned. 
It  is  a  failing  that  "  leans  to  virtue's  side." 
Perhaps  she  exaggerates  his  danger,  but  who 
quarrels  with  the  mother,  whose  affection  for 
her  sailor  boy  keeps  her  tossing  on  a  sleepless 
pillow,  praying  through  the  long  hours  of  a 
stormy  night,  as  her  busy  imagination  fancies 
that  in  that  wild  shriek  of  the  fitful  wind  she 
hears  bis  drowning  cry?  When  the  nursery 
only  has  caught  fire,  and  a  faithful  domestic, 
plucking  the  babe  from  a  burning  cradle, 
rushes  into  your  chamber,  and  makes  you 
leap  to  the  cry — the  house  is  all  on  fire ;  will 
he,  that  hurries  away  to  save  the  rest,  chal- 
lenge the  exaggeration  ?  It  is  as  natural  to 
earnestness  of  purpose  and  depth  of  feeling, 
as  a  blush  to  shame,  or  a  smile  to  happiness, 
or  the  flash  of  the  eye  to  anger. 

I  admit,  indeed  I  assert,  that,  in  regard  to 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  55 

our  own  division  of  the  island,  tlie  extent  of 
this  evij  has  been  exaggerated.  Kot  msiuy 
years  ago,  a  distinguished  patriot  rose  in  the 
Commons'  House  of  Parliament,  and  mourn- 
ing over  his  fatherland — for  he  had  drawn  his 
first  breath  on  this  side  of  the  Border — de- 
clared that  Scotland  was  the  most  drunken 
country,  and  the  Scotch  the  most  drunken 
nation  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  I  am  well 
aware  that  with  all  the  superior  privileges 
which  are  our  boast,  we  cannot  hold  up  an 
unabashed  and  unblushing  face  before  France, 
or  Germany,  or  Switzerland.  In  the  course 
of  last  summer,  I  spent  seven  weeks  in  these 
countries.  I  saw  Paris  at  a  time  of  national 
rejoicing,  the  population  of  that  gay  city  all 
let  loose  from  business  to  pursue  pleasure  at 
their  will.  If  in  that  mighty  crowd  there 
were  gloomy  looks  turned  on  the  royal  pomp 
and  scried  regiments  that  conducted  to  his 
baptism  the  infant  heir  of  a  throne,  which, 
unlike  our  Queen's,  firmly  based  on  the  affec- 
tions of  the  people,  sits  unsteadily  on  the  rim 
of  the  wheel  of  fortune,  the  eye  detected  no 


56  THE   CITY: 

drunkard.  If  some  were  sullen,  all  were 
sober;  and  that  feature  characterized  also 
those  dangerous  quarters  of  the  city,  where 
the  lowest  classes  resided,  where  rebellions 
had  been  hatched,  and  volcanic  revolutions 
had  burst  forth — burjdng  throne  and  altars 
in  a  common  ruin.  I  was  also  in  Brussels 
during  three  days  of  prolonged  public  fetes 
All  its  people  were  abroad  in  the  streets,  and 
the  throng  was  swelled  bj  some  fifty  thousand 
who  had  poured  into  the  capital  from  the 
various  cities  of  the  kingdom.  Yet,  in  these 
different  kingdoms,  neither  in  their  mountain 
hamlets,  nor  crowded  cities,  were  there  pr^ 
sented  so  many  cases  of  intemperance  in  these 
seven  weeks,  as  may  be  seen  almost  any  day 
in  Edinburgh,  or  other  large  city  of  our  island, 
in  seven  short  hours. 

Yet  it  is  not  true  that  Scotland  is  the  most 
drunken  country  in  the  world.  This  is  a  mis- 
statement. As  a  lover  of  my  country,  I  am 
anxious  to  deny  it,  and  still  more  anxious  to 
deny  it,  because  I  see  that  men  have  taken 
occasion   from   it   to   sneer   at    our  religion 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  57 

They  allege,  that  our  strict  observance  of  the 
Sabbath  is  the  cause  of  our  intemperance. 
They  say,  that  if  we  would  sanction  public 
amusements,  and  open  our  theatres  on  the 
Lord's  day,  we  would  check  this  evil,  and 
nurse  our  people  up  in  habits  of  sobriety. 
Much  as  I  value  them,  I  would  not  defend 
our  Sabbath  observances  at  the  expense  of 
truth.  I  would  not  blacken  other  countries 
to  make  my  own  look  fair.  But  the  state- 
ment is  not  consistent  with  fact.  The  Lap- 
land mother  pours  strong  brandy  over  the 
throat  of  her  sucking  child.  In  the  northern 
parts  of  Europe,  am#ng  the  nations  who  in- 
habit its  colder  rfsgions,  deep  drinking  is  as 
rife  as  it  is  here.  Shall  we  cross  the  channel  ? 
In  Ireland  I  saw  more  well-to-do-like  men 
and  women  leaving  a  market  town  on  an 
ordinary  market  day  with  unsteady  step 
than  I  ever  saw  on  a  similar  occasion  on 
this  side  the  Irish  channel.  Shall  we  cross 
the  Border  ?  During  occasional  visits  to  Lon- 
don, I  have  seen  drunkenness  on  a  scale  far 
more   gigantic   than   during   a    residence   of 


58  THE  city: 

twenty  yeare,  I  ever  saw  it  in  the  lowest 
districts  of  this  city.  In  the  charges  of  the 
English  juJges,  who  has  not  read  how  they 
attribute  almost  all  the  crimes  of  their  country, 
directly  or  indirectly,  to  the  baneful  influ- 
ences of  drink?  I  have  been  present  in 
England's  high  courts  of  justice,  and  when 
panel  succeeded  panel  at  the  bar,  the  course 
of  the  trials  brought  out  the  fact,  that  the 
beer-shops  were  in ,  almost  every  case  con- 
nected with  the  crimes. 

This  false  charge,  let  me  remark,  has  arisen 
from  circumstances,  which  are  rather  credita- 
ble to  us  than  otherwise.  I  will  explain  that. 
There  is  a  city  in  England,  which  contains  a 
larger  population  than  our  own;  and  yet  it 
appeared  from  the  police  reports  that  it  pre- 
sented three  times  fewer  cases  of  drunkenness. 
This  seemed  to  crown  them  with  glory,  and 
cover  us  with  shame  But  upon  farther  in- 
quiry, we  found  that  they  had  no  right  to  the 
laurel  There  the  police  conduct  the  drunk- 
ard home,  and  thus  his  case  does  not  appear 
upon  record ;  here,  on  the  other  hand,  regard- 


ITS    SINS    AN'^  OQ BROWS  59 

id  as  a  public  nuisance,  deserving  no  sucli 
gentle  treatment,  lie  is  conducted  to  the  police 
office,  and  so  gets  his  case  entered  in  our  sta- 
tistics of  crime.  Thus,  as  you  will  see,  our 
superior  strictness  made  us,  as  compared  with 
some  other  cities,  appear  worse  than  we  really 
were.  Such  also  has  been  the  effect  of  our 
very  efforts  boldly  to  expose  this  evil ;  with 
God's  blessing  resolutely  to  arrest  its  progress. 
Thanks  especially  to  our  temperance  societies, 
they  have  thrown  a  flood  of  daylight  upon 
the  subject.  And  be  it  remembered,  that  the 
chamber  of  him,  who  has  opened  the  shutters, 
and  let  in  the  sunbeams,  and  is  busy  sweeping 
cobwebs  from  the  wall  and  dust  from  the 
floor,  foul  as  it  seems,  may  be  less  so  than  ? 
room  more  unused  to  brooms  and  less  fully 
illuminated  with  the  light  of  day.  We  have 
brought  out  the  evil.  We  have  dragged  the 
monster  from  his  den,  for  all  the  world  to  gaze 
at  him,  and  hate  him,  and  kill  him,  if  the}''  can. 
In  standing  up  for  my  country,  in  stating 
what  I  believe  to  be  nothing  more  or  less  than 
the  truth,  where  or  when,  let  me  ask,  did  our 


60  THE  city: 

Scottish  Sabbaths  ever  present  such  scenes  as 
those  that  follow  ?  They  appear  in  evidence 
given  before  a  committee  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  Horrible  illustrations  of  what  our 
religion  and  country  have  to  suffer  from  this 
crime,  it  is  painful,  it  is  loathsome,  to  read 
them.  Yet  he  who  would  cure  disease,  and 
save  from  death,  must  nerve  himself  to  endure 
the  horrors  of  the  dissecting-room. 

A  member  of  the  vestry,  and  a  governor  of 
the  poor,  in  the  parish  of  St.  Margarets,  was 
asked  whether  the  increase  in  the  number  of 
drinkers  had  increased  beyond  the  number  of 
the  inhabitants.  He  replies,  "  Yes ;  and  I 
think  the  character  of  the  drinkers  has  deteri- 
orated !  Last  Sunday  morning,  I  arose  about 
seven  o'clock,  and  looked  from  my  bed-room 
at  the  gin-palace  opposite  to  me.  I  saw  it 
surrounded  with  customers ;  amongst  them  I 
saw  two  coal  porters,  apparently  with  women 
who  appeared  to  be  their  wives,  and  a  little 
child,  about  six  or  seven  years  old.  These  forced 
their  way  through  the  crowd  after  much  strug- 
gling ;  they  got  to  the  bar,  and  came  out  again 


ITS  SINS  AND  BOKROWS.  61 

in  a  short  time,  one  of  the  women  so  intox- 
icated as  to  be  unable  to  walk;  she  went 
against  the  door-post,  and  then  fell  flat  on  the 
pavement,  with  her  legs  partly  in  the  shop. 
The  three  who  were  with  her,  attempted  to 
raise  her,  but  they  were  so  intoxicated  as  to  be 
unable  to  perform  that  task ;  their  efforts  to 
perform  that  were  ludicrous,  and  the  doors 
were  opened  wide  into  the  shop  to  admit  of 
the  ingress  and  egress  of  customers,  who  pass- 
ed by  laughing  at  that  which  appeared  to  them 
a  most  comic  scene.  After  a  considerable  time 
they  succeeded  in  raising  the  woman,  but  she 
fell  again ;  they  then  brought  her  to  the  side, 
and  placed  her  against  the  door-post,  and 
there  she  sat,  with  her  head  in  her  bosom,  ap- 
parently insensible;  the  little  child  who  was 
with  her  came  and  endeavored  to  arouse  her, 
by  smacking  her  on. the  legs  and  on  the  body, 
and  on  the  face,  but  she  appeared  quite  insen- 
sible ;  the  little  thing  appeared  to  be  the  most 
sensible  of  the  party.  During  this  time,  a 
woman  almost  in  a  state  of  nudity,  with  a  fine 
infant  at  her  breast,  the  only  dress  being  its 
6 


62  THE  city: 

night  shirt,  followed  by  another  child  about 
eight  years  old,  an  interesting  little  girl,  naked, 
except  a  night-shirt,  and  without  either  shoes 
or  stockings,  followed  a  wretched  looking  man 
into  the  house,  and  remained  there  some  time. 
I  saw  them  struggling  through  the  crowd  to 
get  to  the  bar.  They  all  had  their  gin ;  the 
infant  had  the  first  share  from  the  woman's 
glass ;  they  came  back  to  the  outside  of  the 
door,  and  there  could  hardly  stand,  but  ap- 
peared ripe  for  quarrel.  The  little  child  in 
her  arms  cried,  and  the  wretched  woman  beat 
it  most  unmercifully." 

He  states  also: — "Last  Sunday  morning  I 
had  occasion  to  walk  through  the  Broadway  a 
few  minutes  before  eleven  o'clock.  I  found 
the  pavement  before  every  gin-shop  crowded ; 
just  as  church-time  approached,  the  gin-shops 
sent  forth  their  multitudes,  swearing,  and 
fighting,  and  bawling  obscenely;  some  were 
stretched  on  the  pavement,  insensibly  drunk, 
while  every  few  steps  the  foot  way  was  taken 
up  by  drunken  wretches  being  dragged  to  the 
station  house  by  the  police." 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  63 

The   same   witness   was   asked :—  Has  the 
habit  of  drinking  among  women   much   in- 
creased, so  far  as  your  observation  extends? 
He  answers  : — "  I  think  it  has  extended,  and 
the   children   appear  to   be   initiated  to  the 
drinking  of  spirits  from  their  infancy ;"  and 
he  calls  the  special  attention  of  the  Committee 
to  the  fact,  "  that  the  poor  wretched  girls  who 
live  by  prostitution,  and  who  are  the  best  cus- 
tomers to  the  gin-shops,  die  oif  in  about  four 
years."     Now  mark  how  that  brief  course  of 
vice  and  its  terrible  end  stand  out  in  contrast 
to  the  unholy  gains  of  those  whe  feed  its  fires. 
This  witness  states,  that,  in  three  gin-shops 
close  by  him,  "  more  than  twenty  thousand 
pounds  is  year  by  year  taken  for  spirits  con- 
sumed upon  the  premises ;  and  that  within  a 
circle  containing  a  population  of  40,000  peo- 
ple, not  less  than  £50,000  is  expended  on  gin 
alone  !"     Oh,  if  that  is  a  frightful  vice  which 
eats,  like  a  cancer,  into  a  woman's  breast,  that 
is  a  frightful  trade,  which,  fungus-like,  lives 
upon   the  corruption  of  human  nature — the 
decay  of  our  noblest  faculties,  the  death  of 


64  THE  cmr: 

our  best  affections.  He  is,  for  himself,  a 
wretched  fool,  who  builds  up  a  fortune  out  of 
sin  and  misery.  One  blow  of  death's  hand 
will  shatter  it,  and  what  will  he  do  when  he 
has  to  confront  all  those  who  accuse  him  of 
their  ruin — when  he  stands  at  the  bar  of  God 
as  ragged  and  naked  as  that  wretched  woman 
whom  first  a  villain  spoiled  of  her  virtue,  and 
threw  her  away,  and  next  he  plunders  of  her 
shame  and  money — casting  her  forth  upon  the 
cold,  hard  street. 

This  evidence,  no  doubt,  was  given  somo 
years  ago ;  but  with  our  own  eyes  we  have 
seen  spectacles  of  sin  and  misery  in  London 
bad  as  anything  that  witness  has  depicted. 
Let  us  hear  no  more  therefore  of  the  strict 
Sabbaths  of  Scotland  driving  our  people  into 
the  arms  of  intemperance.  It  was  the  fair 
face  of  England  these  loathsome  spectacles 
blotted.  They  were  to  be  seen  in  her  metrop- 
olis, under  the  shadow  of  religion's  antique 
and  venerable  towers,  near  by  the  palace  of 
royaltj',  and  in  the  immediate  vicioity  of  the 
halls  of  legislation.    Wh'le  our  senators,  fired 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  <5b 

'with  the  ambition  of  old  Kome,  push  Britain'^ 
conquests  to  distant  lands,  and  flare  up  with 
indignation  at  the  slightest  insult  offered  to 
her  flag,  let  them  learn  that  these  scenes  most 
of  all  dishonor  us.     It  is  neither  my  pleasure, 
nor  my  part,  to  speak  "  evil  of  dignities  ;"  but 
having  regard  only  to  the  interests  of  truth, 
of  humanity,  of  God's  glory  and  man's  good, 
I  will  be  bold  to  say,  that  unless  those  into 
whose  hands  we  have  committed  the  affairs  of 
our  country,  cease  to  swell  the  revenues  of 
the  state  out  of  the  vices  of  the  people,  and 
promptly  apply  every  possible  cure  to  these 
crying  evils,  they  will  peril  the  existence  and 
betray  the  best  interests  of  our  empire.     If 
conquests  are  to  be  pushed  abroad,  while  our 
deadliest  enemies  are  left  to  make  such  havoc 
at  home,  our  legislators  will  stand  open  to  the 
charge  of  Solomon  :— "  The  eyes  of  a  fool  are 
in  the  ends  of  thp  earth."     A  remark,  let  me 
add,  not  more  applicable  to  the  state  than  to 
the  church,  if  in  seeking  to  convert  the  hea- 
then  abroad,  she  forgets  the  heathen  at  home. 
6* 


66  THE  CITY; 

Secondly,  Let  us  look  more  particularly  at  the 
intemperance  of  our  own  city. 

She  has  no  occasion  to  sit  proudly  on  her 
hills  and  look  down  on  others.  We  have 
cause  to  thank  God  for  that  Act  of  Parliament 
by  Nyhich,  in  answer  to  the  voice  of  an  all  but 
unanimous  people,  the  drinking-shops  of  Scot- 
land were  closed,  and  all  traffic  in  intoxicat- 
ing liq.iors  pronounced  illegal,  from  Saturday 
night  till  Monday  morning.  We  give  God 
thanks  i  »r  that.  What  we  gained,  we  intend 
to  keep.  What  w^e  won,  w^e  shall  resolutely 
defend.  We  have  no  intention  of  retreating. 
On  the  Cv  atrary,  w^e  desire  to  see  the  law  of 
the  Sabb  ith  extended  to  every  day  of  the 
week,  and  all  shops  opened  for  the  mere  pur- 
poses of  d  finking  shut — shut  up,  as  a  curse  to 
the  comm  mity — as  carrying  on  a  trade,  not 
less  than  t  le  opium-shops  of  China,  incurably 
pernicious  The  evil,  which  cannot  be  cured, 
condemns  itself  to  death. 

But,  am  id  the  improved  aspect  of  our  Sab- 
baths, we  cannot  forget  that  before  the  Act 
whicl/  T  Itave  alluded  to  was  passed,  in  the 


ITS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  67 

more  than  forty  thousand  visits  paid  on  the 
Lord's  day  to  the  drinking  shops,  we  had  a 
fact,  terribly  symptomatic  of  the  extent  and 
virulence  of  the  disease.  Nor  can  we  shut 
our  eyes  to  week-day  scenes.  You  have  only 
to  walk  our  streets  to  see  how  this  vice  rages 
far  and  wide,  and  goes  about  them  "  like  a 
roaring  lion,  seeking  whom  it  may  devour." 
I  should  be  ashamed  to  walk  some  districts  of 
this  city  with  a  native  of  that  ancient  nation 
with  which  we  are  now  at  war,  and  to  which, 
God  grant  that  we  may  soon  be  reconciled. 
''The  wrath  of  man  worketh  not  the  right- 
eousness of  God  ;"  and  who  would  not  rather 
see  our  fleets  with  flowing  sails  approach  these 
distant  shores  to  land  a  freight  of  merchan- 
dise. Bibles,  and  messengers  of  peace,  than 
cannon,  and  serried  regiments,  and  other  ar- 
maments of  war?  With  a  pagan  from  any 
part  of  that  vast  empire,  but  one  which  our 
opium-trade  and  greed  of  gain  had  demoral- 
ized, I  say  that  I  should  be  afraid  to  fmd  my- 
self in  many  districts  of  this  city  of  colleges, 
and  churches,  and  hospitals    and  benevolent 


68  THE  city: 

societieSj  and  people  of  Mgli  Christian  wortL 
and  unquestionable  piety. 

Amid  the  idle  groups  of  bloated  women, 
and  half-naked  children,  and  wrecks  of  men, 
filling  up  almost  every  close-mouth  and  foot 
of  filthy  stair,  with  our  path  crossed  by  some 
reeling  drunkard,  who  launches  himself  into 
the  common  sewer,  with  so  many  shops  under 
Government  license,  turning  health  into  dis- 
ease, decency  into  tattered  rags,  love  into  es- 
trangement or  bitter  hatred,  young  beauty 
into  loathsomeness,  woman's  natural  modesty 
into  loud  and  coarse  efirontery,  mothers'  milk 
into  poison,  mothers'  hearts  into  stone,  and 
the  image  of  God  into  something  baser  than  a 
brute ;  how  could  I  look  that  sober,  upright 
pagan  in  the  face,  and  ask  him  to  become  a 
Christian  ?  I  must  be  dumb,  lest  he  should 
turn  round  on  me  to  ask : — Are  these  Chris- 
tians ?  Be  these  the  fruits  of  Christianity  ? 
I  would  repel  the  charge.  But  what  if  he 
should  follow  it  up  with  a  blow  less  easy  to 
parry?  Pointing  up  to  those  here  who  are 
rolling  in  wealth,  or  enjoying  the  abundant 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  69 

comforts  of  their  homes,  or  the  ordinances  of 
their  worship,  he  might  next  ask  : — What  are 
these  Christians  doing?  What  do  they  to 
save  their  fellow-creatures  from  miseries  that 
move  a  pagan  to  tears  ?  What  to  save  them 
from  crimes  unpractised  by  those  whom  you 
call  the  followers  of  the  false  prophet,  by  us 
to  whose  distant  land  you  send  your  mission- 
aries to  turn  us  from  our  fathers'  idols?  What 
could  I  say?  How  would  I  look?  With 
what  answer  could  I  meet  the  withering  sar- 
casm :— "Physician,  heal  thyself?" 

But  let  us  leave  the  lowest  class  and  rise 
into  a  higher  region.  Not  that  it  would  alter 
my  position  or  abate  my  zeal  if  I  believed  that 
it  was  none  but  the  lowest  of  the  low  who  fell 
victims  to  this  vice.  They  are  our  brethren. 
They  shiver  in  the  cold,  and  pine  under  hun- 
ger, as  well  as  we.  They  have  feelings,  sensi- 
tive to  wrong  and  pain,  as  well  as  we.  They 
have  heart-strings  to  be  broken,  as  well  as  we. 
They  have  souls  to  be  saved,  as  well  as  we— 
souls  as  precious  and  priceless  as  our  own.  A 
diamond  is  a  diamond  whether  it  lies  buried 


70  THE  CITY: 

in  a  dust  heap,  or  flashes  on  beautj^s  finger, 
or  is  set  in  a  golden  crown.  I  hold  a  beggar's 
soul  to  be  as  valuable  as  a  king's  ;  and  that  he 
who  dies  in  a  hovel,  goes  on  the  same  footing 
before  a  God  in  judgment,  as  the  hero,  whose 
death  has  thrown  a  nation  into  mourning,  and 
who  is  borne  to  the  tomb,  through  crowded 
streets,  with  the  honors  and  parade  of  a  public 
funeral. 

Go  not  away,  I  pray  you,  under  the  delu- 
sion, that  like  a  fog-bank  which  lies  thick  and 
heavy  on  the  valley,  when  heights  are  clear, 
and  hill  tops  are  beaming  in  the  morning  sun, 
intemperance  is  confined  only  to  the  lowest 
stratum  of  society.  I  know  the  contrary. 
Much  improved  as  are  the  habits  of  the  upper 
and  middle  classes — and  we  thank  God  for 
that,  extending  jis  that  improvement  has  done 
to  those  who  stand  beneath  them  in  the  social 
pyramid — and  we  bless  God  also  for  that,  and 
hoping.that  this  improvement,  like  water  per- 
colating a  bed  of  sand,  will  sink  down  till  it 
reaches  and  purifies  the  lowest  stratum,  we 
have  met  this  vice  in  all  classes  of  society.     It 


TTS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  7l 

bas  cost  many  a  servant  her  place,  and — sLill 
gTfiater  loss — ruined  her  virtue.  It  has  broken 
the  bread  of  many  a  tradesman.  It  has 
wrecked  the  fortunes  of  many  a  merchant. 
It  hft5  spoiled  the  coronet  of  its  lustre,  and 
sunk  raiJsi  into  contempt.  It  has  sent  respect- 
auility  to  hide  its  head  in  a  poor-house,  and 
prejented  scenes  in  luxurious  drawing-rooms, 
which  have  furnished  laughter  to  the  scullions 
m  the  kitchen. 

But  it  has  done  worse  things  than  break  the  ' 
staff  of  bread,  lower  rank,  wreck  fortunes,  and 
crown  wealth  with  thorns.  Most  accursed 
vice  !  What  hopes  so  precious  that  it  has  not 
withered,  what  career  so  promising  that  it  has 
not  arrested,  what  heart  so  tender,  what  tem- 
per so  fine,  that  it  has  not  destroyed.  w4mt 
things  so  noble  and  sacred  that  it  has  not 
blasted?  Touched  by  its  hell-fire  fisme  the 
laurel  crown  has  been  changed  into  ashes  on 
the  head  of  mourning  genius,  and,  the  wings 
of  the  poet  scorched  by  it,  he  who  once  played 
m  the  light  of  sun-beams  and  soared  aloft  into 
the  skies,  has  basely  crawled  in  the  dust.    Par- 


72  THE  city: 

alysing  the  mind,  even  more  than  the  body,  it 
has  turned  the  noblest  intellect  into  drivelling 
idiocy.  Not  awed  by  dignity,  it  has  polluted 
the  ermine  of  the  judge.  Not  scared  away  by 
the  sanctity  of  the  temple,  it  has  defiled  the 
pulpit.  In  all  these  particulars,  I  speak  what 
I  know.  I  have  seen  it  cover  with  a  cloud, 
or  expose  to  deposition  from  the  office  and 
honors  of  the  holy  ministry,  no  fewer  than  ten 
clergymen,  with  some  of  whom  I  have  sat 
down  at  the  table  of  the  Lord,  and  all  of  whom 
I  numbered  in  the  rank  of  acquaintances  or 
friends. 

The  frightful  extent  of  this  vice,  however, 
\s  perhaps  most  brought  out  by  one  melan- 
sholy  fact.  There  are  few  families  amongst 
us  CO  Iiappy  as  not  to  have  had  some  one  near 
and  dear  to  them  either  in  imminent  peril — 
banging  over  the  precipice — or  the  slave  of 
■r. temperance,  altogether  "sold  unto  sin." 
Considering  the  depravity  of  human  nature, 
and  the  temptations  to  which  our  customs  and 
c' re  urn  stances  expose  us,  that  fact,  however 
melancholy  and  full  of  warning,  does  not  as 


ITE   SINS  AND   SORROWS.  73 

lonish  us.  .But,  to  see  a  father  or  mother,  to 
see  a  brother  or  sister  venturing  on  the  edge 
of  a  whirlpool,  in  whose  devouring,  damning 
vortex  the  J  themselves  have  seen  one  whom 
the  J  loved  engulphed,  does  fill  us  with  aston- 
ishment. I  knew  a  mother  once,  who  saw  her 
only  son  drowned  before  her  eyes.  Years 
came  and  went  ere  she  could  calmly  look  upon 
the  ocean,  or  hear  without  pain  the  roar  of  the 
billows  where  her  boy  was  lost.  How  many 
have  a  better  or  rather  a  bitterer  cause  for 
hating  the  sight  of  the  bowl  I  Considering 
how  many  are  lost — drowned  there,  I  do  won- 
der that  so  few  Christian,  or  no  Christian,  but 
loving  parents,  candidly  consider  the  question, 
whether  it  be  not  their  duty  to  train  up  their 
children  according  to  the  rule,  "Taste  not, 
touch  not,  handle  not."  I  have  wondered 
most  of  all  to  see  a  father  indulging  in  the  cup 
that  had  been  poison,  and  death  to  his  sou. 
Why  does  he  not  throw  it  away — cast  it  from 
him  with  horror  I  Taking  the  knife,  red  with 
the  blood  of  his  child — making  sure  that  it 
shall  be  the  death  of  none  else — why  does  he 
1 


T4  THE  city; 

not  fling  it  after  the  lost  one — down,  down 
into  the  depths  of  hell  ? 

Standing  amid  havoc  and  ruins,  with  so 
many  in  our  neighborhoods,  and  in  our 
churches,  whom  this  vice  has  utterly  wrecked, 
what  prayer  so  suitable  as  this  : — "  0  God ! 
lift  up  thy  feet  unto  the  perpetual  desolations  I 
Thine  enemies  roar  in  the  midst  of  thy  con- 
gregations. They  break  down  the  carved 
work  thereof  with  axes  and  with  hammers. 
They  have  cast  fire  into  thy  saiictuary.  They 
have  defiled  the  dwelling-place  of  thy  name. 
0  God !  how  long  shall  the  adversary  re- 
proach? Shall  the  enemy  blaspheme  thy 
name  for  ever  ?  Have  respect  unto  th}'  cove- 
nant! The  dark  places  of  the  earth  are  full 
of  the  habitations  of  horrid  cruelty.  Forget 
not  the  congregation  of  thy  poor  for  ever. 
Arise,  0  Lord,  and  plead  the  cause  that  is 
thine  own." 

What,  now,  although  the  evil  may  have 
been  exaggerated?  It  has  been  alleged  that 
not  less  than  Sixty  Millions  of  money  are 
spent  year  by  year  on  intoxicating  stimulants 


n^  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  75 

within  the  United  Kingdom.  Keduce  the 
sum  by  one-half,  let  it  be  but  Thirty,  and 
apart  altogether  from  the  ruin  it  works  in 
so  many  cases  on  all  that  is  good,  and  noble, 
and  blessed,  and  beautiful,  and  holy,  how 
great  a  waste !  Are  there  no  hungry  ones 
to  feed,  no  naked  to  clothe,  no  orphans  to 
adopt,  no  unhappy  children  left  uncared  for 
and  untaught,  no  favorable  outlets  for  our 
money  on  the  heathenism  of  home  or  foreign 
fields  ?  There  are.  And  when  the  poor  aro 
starving,  when  souls  are  perishing,  when  we 
are  straitened  for  want  of  funds  to  supply  the 
gospel  at  home,  or  send  missionaries  to  tell 
the  heathen  world  of  Jesus  and  his  love,  how 
shall  we  face  a  day  of  judgment — we  who 
spend  a  sum  equal  to  half  the  whole  revenue 
of  the  British  empire  on  what  is  in  all  cases  a 
luxury,  in  most  cases  an  injury,  and  in  many 
a  most  fatal  indulgence  ?  Before  we  are  sum- 
moned into  the  Master's  presence,  it  is  well  to 
be  thinking  how  we  are  to  meet  the  demand, 
"  Give  an  account  of  thy  stewardship." 

Again,  it  has  been  stated  that  through  the 


76  THE  CITY: 

direct  and  indirect  effects  produced  bj  these 
stimulants,  Sixty  thousand  lives  are  annually 
lost.  Reduce  that  also  by  one-half,  and  what 
a  quotient  remains  !  Thirty  thousand  human 
lives  offered  in  annual  sacrifice  at  the  bloody 
shrine  of  this  idol  I  Death  is  bitter  enough  in 
any  circumstances  to  the  bereaved.  However 
precious  our  comforts  be,  all  memory  of  the 
dead  is  more  or  less  painful.  We  put  out  of 
«ight  the  toys  of  the  little  hands  that  are 
mouldering  in  the  silent  grave.  The  picture 
of  the  dear  one,  whose  eyes  our  fingers  have 
closed,  and  whose  face  the  shroud  has  covered, 
hangs  veiled  upon  the  wall.  The  remem- 
brance of  the  loved  and  lost  will  throw  on 
life's  brightest  scenes  the  cold  shadow  of  a 
cloud,  v/hich  discharges  its  burden  of  grief 
sometimes  in  a  few  drops,  sometimes  in  a 
shower  of  tears.  But  over  how  many  of 
these  thirty  thousand  deaths  is  there  the 
mourning  that  has  no  hope  I  What  incurable 
wounds  have  they  inflicted !  What  sad  memo- 
ries  have  they  left!  They  talk  of  war! 
What  is  war  to  that?     Give  me  her  bloody 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  77 

bed,  buiy  me  or  mine  in  a  soldier's  rather 
than  in  a  drunkard's  grave!  Innocent  chil- 
dren, killed  off  bj  cold  and  hunger,  slowly 
starved  to  death — coffins  that  hold  broken 
hearts — woman's  remorse  for  her  virtue  lost, 
gnawing  like  a  vulture  at  life's  quivering 
vitals — poor,  pitiable  wretches,  with  palsied 
hands  and  shrivelled  limbs,  in  loop-holed 
poverty,  who  would  give  the  world  to  be 
able,  as  in  better  and  bygone  days,  to  love 
their  wives  and  bless  their  children,  and  en- 
joy the  esteem  of  their  neighbors,  sinking  into 
death  by  inches,  or  staggering  at  a  sudden 
call  up  to  the  bar  of  judgment!  Thirty 
thousand  such  cases,  year  by  year,  in  this 
kingdom!  Than  that,  give  me  rather  the 
battle-field.  With  a  good  cause  to  fight  for, 
and  bugles  sounding  the  assault,  give  me  the 
red  rush  of  gallent  men  who  dash  across  the 
lines  of  death,  and  leaping  in  at  every  breach 
and  embrasure,  strike  for  the  liberties  of  man 
— falling  with  their  mother's  Bible  in  their 
breast,  a  mother's  ani  Jesus'  name  mingled 
on   their   dying  lips!     '''No    drunkard  shall 


78  THE   CITY:    ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS. 

inherit  the  kingdom  of  Grod."  But  of  those 
who  sleep  in  Jesus,  whether  thej  died  with 
gentle  and  holj  voices  in  their  ear,  or  amid 
the  crash  of  musketry  and  roar  of  canon — "  I 
heard  a  voice  from  heaven,  saying  unto  me, 
Write,  Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die  in  the 
Lord,  from  henceforth,  yea,  saith  tlie  Spirit, 
that  they  may  rest  from  their  labors,  and  theii 
works  do  follow  them." 


SERMON    III. 

**  When  he  beheld  the  city,  he  wept  over  it" — Lctkb  xlx.  41. 

THEKE  is  a  remarkable  phenomenon  to  be 
seen  on  certain  parts  of  our  own  coast. 
Strange  to  say,  it  proves,  notwithstanding 
such  expressions  as  the  stable  and  solid  land, 
that  it  is  not  the  land  but  the  sea  which  is  the 
stable  element.  On  some  summer  day,  whet 
there  is  not  a  wave  to  rock  her,  nor  breath  ot 
wind  to  fill  her  sail  or  fan  a  cheek,  you  launch 
your  boat  upon  the  waters^  and,  pulling  out 
beyond  lowest  tide  mark,  you  idly  lie  upon 
her  bows  to  catch  the  silvery  glance  of  a  pass- 
ing fish,  or  watch  the  movements  of  the  many 
curious  creatures  that  travel  the  sea's  sandy 
bed,  or,  creeping  out  of  their  rocky  homes, 
wander  its  tangled  mazes.  If  the  traveller  is 
surprised  tc  find  a  deep-sea  shell  embedded  in 
the  marbles  ot  a  .iiountain  peak,  how  groat  is 


80  THE   CITY. 

your  surprise  to  see  beneatli  you  a  vegetation 
foreign  to  the  deep  I  Below  your  boat,  sub- 
merged many  feet  beneath  the  surface  of  the 
lowest  tide,  away  down  in  these  green  crystal 
depths,  you  see  no  rusting  anchor,  no  mould- 
ering remains  of  some  shipwrecked  one,  but  in 
the  stf.nding  stumps  of  trees  you  discover  the 
mouldering  vestiges  of  a  forest,  where  once 
the  wild  cat  prowled,  and  the  birds  of  heaven, 
singing  their  loves,  had  nestled  and  nursed 
their  young.  In  counterpart  to  those  portions 
of  our  coast  where  sea-hollowed  caves,  with 
sides  the  waves  have  polished,  and  floors  still 
strewed  with  shells  and  sand,  now  stand  high 
above  the  level  of  the  strongest  stream-tides, 
there  stand  these  dead  decaying  trees — en- 
tombed in  the  deep.  A  strange  phenomenon, 
which  admits  of  no  other  explanation,  than 
this,  that  there  the  coast  line  has  sunk  beneath 
its  ancient  level. 

Many  of  our  cities  present  a  phenomenon 
as  melancholy  to  the  eye  of  a  philanthropist, 
as  the  other  is  interesting  to  a  philosopher,  or 
geologist.     In   their  economical,   educational. 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  81 

moral,  and  religious  aspects,  certain  parts  of 
tlijs  city  bear  palpable  evidence  of  a  corre- 
sponding subsidence.  Not  a  single  house,  nor 
a  block  of  houses,  but  whole  streets,  once 
from  end  to  end  the  abodes  of  decency,  and 
industry,  and  wealth,  and  rank,  and  piety, 
have  been  engulphed.  A  flood  of  ignorance, 
and  misery,  and  sin,  now  breaks  and  roars 
above  the  top  of  their  highest  tenements. 
Nor  do  the  old  stumps  of  a  forest,  still  stand- 
ing up  erect  beneath  the  sea-wave,  indicate  a 
greater  change,  a  deeper  subsidence,  than  the 
relics  of  ancient  grandeur,  and  the  touching 
memorials  of  piety  whioh  yet  linger  about 
these  wretched  dwellings,  like  evening  twilight 
on  the  hills — like  some  traces  of  beauty  on  a 
corpse.  The  unfarnished  floor,  the  begrimed 
and  naked  walls,  the  stifling,  sickening  atmos- 
phere, the  patched  and  dusty  window  — 
through  which  a  sunbeam,  like  hope,  is  faintly 
stealing,  the  ragged,  hunger-bitten,  and  sad- 
faced  children,  the  ruffian  man,  the  heap  of 
straw  where  some  wretched  mother,  in  mutter- 
ing dreams,  sleeps  off  last  night's  debauch,  or 


82  THE    CITY: 

lies  UDsbrouded  and  uncoffined  in  the  ghastli- 
ness  of  a  hopeless  death,  are  sad  scenes.  We 
have  often  looked  on  them.  And  they  ap- 
pear all  the  sadder  for  the  restless  play  of 
fancy.  Excited  by  some  vestiges  of  a  fresco- 
painting  that  still  looks  out  from  the  foul  and 
broken  plaster,  the  massive  marble  rising  over 
the  cold  and  cracked  hearth-stone,  an  elabo- 
rately carved  cornice  too  high  for  shivering 
cold  to  pull  it  down  for  fuel,  some  stucco  flow- 
ers or  fruit  yet  pendant  on  the  crumbling  ceil- 
ing, fancy,  kindled  by  these,  calls  up  the  scenes 
and  actors  of  other  days — when  beauty,  ele- 
gance, and  fashion  graced  these  lonely  halls, 
and  plenty  smoked  on  groaning  tables,  and 
where  these  few  cinders,  gathered  from  the 
city  dust-heap,  are  feebly  smouldering,  hospi- 
table fires  roared  up  the  chimney. 

But  there  is  that  in  and  about  these  houses 
which  bears  witness  of  a  deeper  subsidence,  a 
yet  sadder  change.  Bent  on  some  mission  of 
mercy,  you  stand  at  the  foot  of  a  dank  and 
filthy  stair.  It  conducts  3^ou  to  the  crowded 
rooms  of  a  tenement,  where — with  the  excep- 


ITS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  83 

tion  of  some  old  decent  widow  who  has  seen 
better  days,  aud  when  her  family  are  all  dead, 
an-d  her  friends  are  all  gone,  still  clings  tc 
God  and  her  faith  in  the  dark  hour  of  adver- 
sity and  amid  the  wreck  of  fortune — ^from  the 
cellar-dens  below  to  the  garrets  beneath  the 
roof-tree,  you  shall  find  none  either  reading 
their  Bible,  or  even  with  a  Bible  to  read. 
Alas  I  of  prayer,  of  morning  and  evening 
psalms,  of  earthly  or  heavenly  peace,  it  may 
be  said  that  the  place  that  once  knew  them, 
knows  them  no  more.  But  before  you  enter 
thee  door-way,  raise  your  eyes  to  the  stone 
above  it.  Dumb,  it  speaks  of  other  and  bet- 
ter times.  Carved  in  Greek  or  Latin,  or  our 
own  mother  tongue,  you  decipher  such  texts 
as  these: — "Peace  be  to  this  house."  ^'Ex- 
cept the  Lord  build  the  house,  they  labor  in 
vain  that  build  it."  ^'  We  have  a  building  of 
God,  an  house  not  made  with  hands  eternal  in 
the  heavens."  t  "  Fear  God ;"  or  this,  "  Love 
your  neighbor."  Like  the  mouldering  rem- 
nants of  a  forest  that  once  resounded  with  the 
melody  of  birds,  but  hears  nought  now  save 


84  THE  city: 

the  angrj  dash  or  melancholy  m  jan  of  break- 
ing waves,  these  vestiges  of  piety  furnish  a 
guage  w  hich  enables  us  to  measure  how  low 
in  these  dark  localities  the  whole  stratum  of 
society  has  sunk. 

Now  there  are  forces  in  nature  which,  heav- 
ing Tip  the  crust  of  our  earth,  may  convert 
the  sea  bed  again  into  forest  or  corn  land.  At 
this  moment  these  forces  are  in  active  opera- 
tion. Y/orking  slowly,  yet  with  prodigious 
power,  they  are  now  raising  the  coasts  of 
Sweden  in  the  old  world  and  of  Chili  in  the 
new.  And  who  knows  but  these  subterranean 
agencies,  elevating  our  own  coasts,  may  yet 
restore  verdure  to  those  deep  sea  sands — giv- 
ing back  to  the  plough  its  soil,  to  waving 
pines  their  forest  land.  And  thus  on  our 
shores,  redeemed  from  the  grasp  of  the  ocean 
in  some  future  era,  golden  harvests  may  fall 
to  the  reaper's  song,  and  tall  forests  to  the 
woodman's  axe.  We  know  not  whether  this 
shall  happen.  But  I  do  know  that  there  is  a 
force  at  work  in  this  world — gentle,  yet  pow- 
erful— commonly  slow  in  action,  but  always 


ITS   SINS  AND  SORROWS.  85 

sure  in  its  results,  which,  mightier  than  vol- 
canic fires,  pent-up  vapor,  or  rocking  earth- 
quake, is  adequate  to  raise  the  most  sunken 
masses  of  society,  and  restore  the  lowest  and 
longest  neglected  districts  of  our  cities  to  their 
old  level — ^to  set  them  on  the  platform  even 
of  a  higher  Christionity. 

Can  these  people  ever  be  raised?  Can 
those  "dry  bones  live?"  "Where  is  the 
Lord  God  of  Elijah  ?"  are  questions,  distress- 
ing questions,  which,  when  worn  and  weary, 
and  disappointed,  and  cast  down,  and  heart- 
sick, we  have  been  often  tempted  to  ask.  01 
such  times,  we  could  say  with  David  : — "  We 
had  fainted,  unless  we  had  believed  to  see  the 
goodness  of  the  Lord  in  the  land  of  the  living." 
But  this  voice  of  God  came  sounding  down 
from  Heaven,  saying  ; — "  Though  je  have 
lain  among  the  pots,  yet  ye  shall  be  as  the 
wings  of  a  dove  covered  with  silver,  and  her 
feathers  with  yellow  gold."  When  ready  to 
sink  under  a  sense  of  our  own  feebleness,  it 
said  to  us  :— "  The  chariots  of  God  are  twenty 
thousand,  even  thousands  of  angels  ;  the  Lord 
8 


86  THE   CITY: 

is  among  tLem>  as  in  Sinai,  in  the  holy  place.** 
To  the  question,  Can  these  lost  ones  be  recov- 
ered? the  answer  came  in  these  brave,  and 
bold,  and  cheerful  terms : — "  I  will  bring 
again  from  Bashan ;  I  will  bring  my  people 
again  from  the  depths  of  the  sea,  that  thy  foot 
may  be  dipped  in  the  blood  of  thine  enemies, 
and  the  tongue  of  thy  dogs  in  the  same." 
And,  as  he  stood  on  the  heights  of  inspiration, 
looking  far  away  into  distant  time,  and  com- 
manding an  extent  of  prospect  hid  from  com- 
mon eyes,  we  heard  the  prophet  announce  the 
approaching  of  the  promised  event,  a  glorious 
gospel  change : — "  They  have  seen  thy  go- 
ings, 0  God ;  even  the  goings  of  my  King  in 
the  sanctuary.  The  singers  went  before,  the 
players  on  instruments  followed  after ;  among 
them  were  the  damsels  playing  on  timbrels. 
There  is  little  Benjamin  with  the  ruler,  the 
princes  of  Judah  with  their  council,  the  princes 
of  Zebulon  and  the  princes  of  Naphtali.  Thy 
God  hath  commanded  thy  strength.  Strength' 
en,  O  God,  that  which  thou  hast  wrought  for 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  87 

US.     Sing  unto  God,  ye  kingdoms  of  the  earth 
0  sing  praises  unto  the  Lord." 

Yes.  To  put  new  vigor  into  his  sinking 
energies,  a  man  has  only  to  "  remember  the 
years  of  the  right  hand  of  the  Most  High." 
How  does  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  crowned 
with  triumphs,  point  her  sceptre  not  to  fami- 
lies, nor  hamlets,  nor  cities,  but  whole  nations, 
raised  from  the  lowest  barbarism  and  the  bas- 
est vices ! 

We  cannot  despair  so  long  as  we  do  not 
forget,  that  the  power  of  God,  and  the  wisdom 
of  God,  and  the  grace  of  God,  have  nothing  tc« 
do  within  our  shores  which  they  have  not 
done  already.  Are  our  lapsed  classes  rude 
and  uncultivated,  ignorant  and  vicious?  So 
were  our  forefathers,  when  Christianity  landed 
on  this  island.  She  took  possession  of  it  in 
Jesus'  name,  and  conquered  bold  savages, 
whom  the  Komans  could  never  subdue,  by 
the  mild  yet  mighty  power  of  the  gospel. 
God's  "  hand  is  not  shortened  that  it  cannot 
save,  nor  is  his  ear  heavy  that  it  cannot  hear." 
Therefore,  whatever  lengtl  of  time  may  be  re- 


88  THE  city: 

quired  to  evangelize  our  city  masses,  however 
long  we  may  be  living  before  the  period  when 
a  "  nation  shall  be  born  in  a  day,"  whatever 
trials  of  patience  we  may  have  to  endure, 
whatever  tears  we  may  have  to  shed  over  our 
cities,  our  tears  are  not  such  as  Jesus  wept, 
when  he  beheld  Jerusalem. 

No.  Jerusalem  was  sealed  to  ruin — doomed 
beyond  redemption.  Our  brethren,  our  cities 
are  not  so.  We  have  not  to  mourn  as  those 
who  have  no  hope.  As  on  a  summer  day  I 
have  seen  the  sky  at  once  so  shine  and  shower, 
that  every  rain-drop  was  changed  by  sun- 
beams into  a  falling  diamond,  so  hopes  mingle 
here  with  fears,  and  the  promises  of  the  gospel 
shed  sun-light  on  pious  sorrows.  "Weep  we 
may  ;  weep  we  should — weep  and  work,  weep 
and  pray.  But  ever  let  our  tears  be  such  as 
Jesus  shed  beside  the  tomb  of  Lazarus,  when, 
while  weeping,  groaning,  he  bade  the  bystand- 
ers roll  away  the  stone — anticipating  the  mo- 
ment when  the  grave  at  his  command  would 
give  up  its  dead,  and  Lazarus  be  folded,  a  liv- 
ing brother,  in  the  arms  that,  four  days  ago, 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  89 

had  swathed  his  corpse.  Be  such  our  tears 
and  anticipations.  Sustained  by  them  we 
shall  work  all  the  better ;  and  all  the  sooner 
shall  our  heavenly  Father  embrace  the  most 
wretched  of  these  wretched  outcasts.  Faith 
may  be  cast  down,  but  cannot  be  destroyed. 
There  is  no  reason,  because  we  are  "per- 
plexed," ever  to  "despair."  Black  as  the 
prospect  looks,  the  cloud  presents  one  aspect 
to  the  world,  and  another  to  the  Christian.  I 
stand  on  the  side  of  it  that  lies  next  the  sun. 
There,  with  the  sun  shining  at  my  back  and 
the  black  cloud  in  my  eye,  I  see  a  radiant 
bow  which  spans  its  darkness,  and  reveals  in 
heavenly  colors  mercy  to  a  fallen  world.  "  It 
Is  a  faithful  saying,  and  worthy  of  all  accepta- 
tion, that  Jesus  Christ  came  into  the  w^orld  to 
save  sinners."  With  the  eye  of  faith  fixed  on 
that,  we  resume  our  work,  and  proceed  still 
further  to  lay  bare  the  state  of  the  city — its 
sorrows  for  Christian  balm,  its  sins  for  Chris- 
tian cure. 

We  have  turned  your  attention  to  the  ex 
tent  of  intemperance,  let  us  now 
8* 


90  THE  city: 

Secondly,  Attend  to  the  effects  of  this  vice. 

The  Spartans,  a  brave,  and,  althougli  hea- 
thens, in  many  respects  a  virtuous  people, 
held  intemperance  in  the  deepest  abhorrence. 
When  Christian  parents  initiate  their  children 
in  drinking  habits,  and — as  we  have  seen  and 
wondered  at — teach  them  to  carry  their  glass 
to  infant  lips,  copy  whom  they  may,  the  wise 
old  Spartans  are  not  their  model.  They  were 
not  more  careful  to  train  the  youth  of  their 
country  to  athletic  exercises,  and  from  their 
boyhood  and  almost  their  mothers'  breasts  to 
''  endure  hardship  as  good  soldiers"  of  Sparta, 
than  to  rear  them  up  in  habits  of  strictest, 
sternest  temperance.  It  formed  a  regular 
branch  of  their  national  education.  Why 
should  it  not  of  ours  ?  It  would  be  an  incal- 
culable blessing  to  the  community.  It  would 
do  incalculably  more  to  promote  domestic 
comfort,  to  guard  the  welfare  of  families,  and 
secure  the  public  good,  than  other  branches 
ihat,  while  they  go  to  improve  the  taste  and 
polish  the  mind,  put  no  real  pith  or  power 
into  the  man.   Well,  once  a  year  these  Greeks 


ITS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  91 

assembled  their  slaves,  and,  Laving  compelled 
them  to  drink  to  intoxication,  thej  turned 
them  out — all  reeling,  staggering,  besotted, 
brutalized — into  a  great  arena,  that  the  youths 
who  filled  its  benches  might  go  home  from 
this  spectacle  of  degradation  to  shun  the  wine- 
cup,  and  cultivate  the  virtues  of  sobriety. 
Happy  country  !  thrice  happy  land  I  where 
drunkenness  was  to  be  seen  but  once  a  year, 
and  formed  but  an  annual  spectacle.  Alas  I  we 
have  no  need  to  employ  such  unjustifiable 
means  even  for  so  good  an  end  I  We  do  not 
require  to  get  up  any  annual  show,  from  the 
pulpit  to  tell,  or  on  the  stage  of  a  theatre  to 
represent,  its  accursed,  and  direful,  and  dis- 
gusting effects.  The  lion  is  daily  ravaging  on 
our  streets.  He  goes  about  "seeking  whom 
he  may  devour." 

Once  a  year,  indeed,  when  church-courts 
meet,  our  city  may  present  a  spectacle  which 
fools  regard  with  indifference,  but  wise  mec 
with  compassion  and  fear.  A  jiale  and  hag- 
gard man,  bearing  the  title  of  "Eeverend," 
stands  at  tbe  bar  of  his  church.     Not  daring 


92  THE  city: 

to  look  up,  lie  bends  there  with  his  head  bur- 
ied in  his  hands,  blushes  on  his  face,  his  lips 
quivering,  and  a  hell  raging,  burning  within 
him,  as  he  thinks  of  home,  a  broken-hearted 
wife,  and  the  little  ones  so  soon  to  leave  that 
dear  sweet  home,  to  shelter  their  innocent 
heads  where  best,  all  beggared  and  disgraced, 
thej  may.  "  Ah,  my  brother"  there  !  And 
ah,  my  brethren  here,  learn  to  '*  watch  and 
pray,  that  ye  enter  not  into  temptation."  See 
there  the  issue  of  all  a  mother's  anxieties,  and 
a  father's  self  denying  and  parsimonious  toil, 
to  educate  their  promising,  studious  boy.  In 
this  deep  darkness  has  set  for  ever  a  brilliant 
college  career.  Alas  I  what  an  end  to  the  sol- 
emn day  of  ordination,  and  the  bright  day  of 
marriage,  and  all  those  Sabbaths  when  an  af- 
fectionate people  hung  on  his  eloquent  lips  I 
Oh  I  if  this  sacred  office,  if  the  constant  hand- 
ling of  things  divine,  if  hours  of  study  spent 
over  the  word  of  Grod,  if  frequent  scenes  of 
death,  with  their  most  awful  and  sobering  so- 
lemnities, if  the  irremediable  ruin  into  w^hich 
degradation   from  the   holy  office   plunges  a 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  93 

nan  and  his  house  along  with  him,  if  the  un- 
speakable heinousness  of  tbis  sin  in  one  who 
held  the  post  of  a  sentinel,  and  was  charged 
with  the  care  of  souls— if  these  do  not  fortify 
and  fence  us  against  excess,  then,  in  the  name 
of  God,  *'let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth, 
take  heed  lest  he  fall."     You  are  confident  in 
your  sh-ength,  so  was  he.     You  can  use  with- 
out abusing,  so  once  could  he.     I  tell  you  T 
have  seen  ministers  of  the  gospel  charged  hy 
fame,  dragged  to  the  bar  of  their  church,  and 
degraded  before  the  world  as  drunkards,  whom 
once  I  would  have  as  little  expected  to  fall  as 
I  expect  some  of  you— as  you  believe  it  pos- 
sible that  this  vice  shall  yet  degrade  me  from 
the  pulpit,  and  cause  my  children  to  blush  at 
mention  of  their  fcither's  name.     Such  casea 
are  trumpet-tongued.    Their  voice  sounds  the 
loudest  warning.     In  such  a  fall  we  hear  the 
crash  of  a  stately  tree.     Leave   an    ungodly 
world— deaf,  stone-deaf  to  the  voice  of  Provi- 
dence—to quaff  their  cups,  and  make  the  fall 
of  ministers  "the  sorg  of  drunkards;"  leave 
them  to  say  that  all  religion  is  hypocrisy,  and 


94  THE  city: 

see,  in  such  a  case,  but  the  dropping  ol  a  mask 
from  falsehood's  face.  Let  that  which  embold 
ens  them  in  sin  teach  you  to  stand  in  awe. 
For  it  seems  to  me  as  if,  disturbed  in  his  graVe 
by  the  shock  of  such  an  event,  the  old  proph- 
et, wrapped  like  Samuel  in  his  mantle  shroud, 
had  left  the  dead  to  cry  in  the  ears  of  all  the 
living,  who  regard  with  indifference  the  fall 
of  a  minister,  "Howl,  fir-trees,  for  the  cedar 
is  fallen." 

On  leaving  a  church-court,  where  he  has 
seen  so  strange  and  dreadful  a  spectacle  as  a 
man  of  cultivated  mind,  a  man  of  literary 
habits,  a  man  of  honorable  position,  a  man  of 
sacred  character,  sacrifice  all, — ^the  cause  of 
religion,  the  bread  of  his  family,  the  interests 
of  his  children,  the  happiness  of  his  wife,  his 
character,  bis  soul, — all,  to  this  base  indul- 
gence, no  man,  after  such  a  terrible  proof  of 
the  might  and  mastery  of  this  tyrant  vice,  will 
be  astonished  at  anything  he  may  encounter 
in  our  streets.  Yet  if  the  soul  of  Paul  was 
"stirred  within  him," — stirred  t(.)  its  deepest 
depths, — when  he  saw  the  idolatry  of  Athens, 


ITS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  95 

I  think  that  lie  who  can  walk  from  this  neigli- 
boring  castle  to  yonder  palace,  nor  groan  in 
spirit,  must  have  a  heart  about  as  hard  as  the 
pavement  that  he  walks  on.  The  degradation 
of  humanit}^,  the  ragged  poverty,  the  squalid 
misery,  the  suffering  childhood,  the  pining, 
dying  infancy,  oh,  how  do  these  obliterate  all 
the  romance  of  the  scene,  and  make  the  most 
picturesque  street  in  Christendom  one  of  the 
most  painful  to  travel.  They  call  the  street 
in  Jerusalem,  along  which  tradition  says  that 
a  bleeding  Saviour  bore  his  cross,  the  Via 
Dolorosa;  and  I  have  thought  that  our  own 
street  was  baptized  in  the  sorrows  of  as  mourn- 
ful a  name.  With  so  many  countenances  thai 
have  misery  stamped  on  them  as  plain  as  if  it 
were  burned  in  with  a  red-hot  iron — hunger 
siarmg  at  us  out  of  these  hollow  eyes — drink- 
palsied  men,  drink-blotched  and  bloated  wo- 
men— sad  and  sallow  infants  who  pine  away 
into  slow  death,  with  their  weary  heads  lying 
so  pitifully  on  the  shoulders  of  some  hali' 
de-humanized  woman — this  poor  little  child, 
who  nevei   smiles,  without  shoe  or  stocking 


96  THE  CITY: 

on  his  ulcered  feet,  shivering,  creeping,  limp- 
ing along  with  the  bottle  in  his  emaciated 
hand,  to  buy  a  parent  drink  with  the  few 
pence  that,  poor  hungry  creature,  he  would 
fain  spend  on  a  loaf  of  bread,  but  dare  not — 
the  whole  scene  is  like  the  roll  of  the  prophet, 
''  written  within  and  without,  lamentations, 
mourning,  and  woe."  How  has  it  wrung  our 
heart  to  see  a  poor  ragged  boy  looking  greed- 
ily in  at  a  window  on  the  food  he  has  no  one 
to  give  him,  and  dare  not  touch, — to  watch 
him,  as  he  alternately  lifted  his  naked  feet, 
lest  they  should  freeze  to  the  icy  pavement. 
He  starves  in  the  midst  of  abundance.  Ne- 
glected among  a  people  who  would  take  more 
pity  on  an  ill-used  horse  or  a  dying  dog,  he  is 
a  castaway  upon  the  land.  Of  the  throngs 
that  pass  heedlessly  by  him  to  homes  of  com- 
fort, intent  on  business  or  on  pleasure,  there 
is  no  one  cares  for  him.  Poor  wretch  I  0  if 
lie  knew  a  Bible  which  none  has  taught  him, 
how  might  he  plant  himself  before  us,  and  bar 
our  way  to  church  or  prayer-meeting,  saying, 
us  he  fixed  on  us  an  imploring  eye,  "  Pure  re- 


ITS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  97 

ligion  and  undefiled  before  God"  is  to  feed  me 
— is  to  clothe  tliese  naked  limbs — is  to  fill  up 
these  hollow  cheeks — is  to  pour  the  light  of 
knowledge  into  this  darkened  soul — is  to  save 
me — is  not  to  go  to  house  of  God  or  place  of 
prayer,  but  first  coming  with  me  to  our  miser- 
able home,  "  to  visit  the  widow  and  fatherless 
in  their  affliction,  and  keep  thy  garments  un- 
spotted from  the  world." 

You  can  test  the  truth  of  these  statements. 
You  have  only  to  walk  along  the  street  to 
verify  them.  Yet  bad  as  it  looks,  and  bad  as 
it  is,  the  street  reveals  not  half  the  evil.  I 
know  that  some  look  with  suspicion  upon  our 
statements.  They  doubt  whether  matters  be- 
low are  so  bad  as  we  report.  They  insinuate 
that  surely  we  are  exaggerating  existing  evils. 
Well,  there  is  nothing  more  easy,  although 
there  might  be  many  things  more  noble,  than 
to  lie  beneath  bright  skies,  and  amid  gay 
company,  and  on  a  flowery  sward,  and  dis- 
miss with  an  incredulous  smile  the  claims 
of  suffering  humanity.  It  were  more  like 
a  man  and  a  Christian  to  throw  yourself  into 
9 


98  THE  city: 

the  bucket,  seize  the  chain,  go  down  into  the 
pit  and  put  the  matter  to  the  proof.  We 
invite  jou  to  do  that  which  will  rudely  dis- 
sipate every  doubt,  and  bring  you  up,  a 
better  and  wiser  man,  to  say  with  Sheba's 
Queen,  "  The  half  was  not  told  me."  Mean- 
while, come  along  with  me,  while  I  again 
travel  over  some  bygone  scenes. 

Look  there!  In  that  corpse  you  see  the 
cold,  dead  body  of  one  of  the  best  and  god- 
liest  mothers  it  was  ever  our  privilege  to 
know.  She  had  a  son.  He  was  the  stay 
of  her  widowhood — so  kind,  so  affectionate, 
so  loving.  Some  are  taken  away  from  the 
"  evil  to  come ;"  laid  in  the  lap  of  mother 
earth,  safe  beneath  the  grave's  green  sod, 
they  hear  not  and  heed  not  the  storm  that 
rages  above.  Such  was  not  her  happy  for- 
tune. She  lived  to  see  that  son  a  disgrace, 
and  all  the  promises  of  his  youth  blighted 
and  gone.  He  was  drawn  into  habits  of 
intemperance.  On  her  knees  she  pleaded 
with  him.  On  her  knees  she  prayed  for 
him.     How  mysterious  are  the  ways  of  Provi- 


rrS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  99 

dence  I  She  did  not  live  to  see  him  changed ; 
and  with  such  thorns  in  her  pillow,  such  dag- 
gers, planted  by  such  a  hand,  in  her  heart, 
she  could  not  live.  She  sank  under  these 
griefs,  and  died  of  a  broken  heart.  We  told 
him  so.  With  bitter,  burning  tears  he  owned 
it;  charging  himself  with  his  mother's  death 
— confessing  himself  a  mother's  murderer. 
Crushed  with  sorrow,  and  all  alone,  he  went 
to  see  the  body.  Alone,  beside  that  cold, 
dead,  unreproaching  mother,  he  knelt  down 
and  wept  out  his  terrible  remorse.  After 
a  while  he  rose.  Unfortunately — how  unfor- 
tunate that  a  spirit  bottle  should  have  beer 
left  there — his  eye  fell  on  the  old  tempter. 
You  have  seen  the  iron  approach  the  magnet. 
Call  it  spell,  call  it  fascination,  call  it  anything 
bad,  demoniacal,  but  as  the  iron  is  drawn  to 
the  magnet,  or  as  a  fluttering  bird,  fascinated 
by  the  burning  eye  and  glittering  skin  of 
the  serpent,  walks  into  its  envenomed,  ex- 
panded jaws,  so  was  he  drawn  to  the  bottle. 
Wondering  at  his  delay,  they  entered  the 
room;    and  now  the  bed  hold?   two  bodies 


100  THE  city: 

— a  dead  motlier,  and  her  dead-drunk  son. 
What  a  sight !  what  a  humbling,  horrible 
spectacle  I  And  what  a  change  from  those 
happy  times,  when  night  drew  her  peaceful 
curtains  around  the  same  son  and  mother — 
he,  a  sweet  babe,  sleeping,  angel-like,  within 
her  loving  arms !  "  How  is  the  gold  become 
dim,  the  most  fine  gold  changed !" 

Or  look  there.  The  bed  beside  which  you 
have  at  other  visits  conversed  and  prayed 
with  one  who,  in  the  very  bloom  and  flower 
of  youth,  was  withering  away  under  a  slow 
decline — is  empty.  The  living  need  it;  and 
so  its  long,  and  spent,  and  weary  tenant  lies 
now,  stretched  out  in  death,  on  the  top  of  two 
rade  chests  beside  the  window.  And  as  you 
stand  by  the  body — contemplating  it — in  that 
pallid  face  lighted  up  by  a  passing  sun-gleam 
you  see,  along  with  lingering  traces  of  no 
common  beauty,  the  calmness  and  peace  which 
were  her  latter  end.  But  in  this  hot,  sultry, 
summer  weather,  why  lies  she  there  uncoffined  ? 
Drink  has  ieft  us  to  do  that  last  office  for  the 
dead.     Her  father — how  unworthy  the  name 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  101 

of  father — when  liis  daughter  pled  with  him 
for  his  soul,  pled  with  him  fcr  her  mother, 
pled  with  him  for  her  little  sister,  had  stood 
bj  her  dying  pillow  to  damn  her — ^fiercely 
damning  her  to  her  face.  He  has  left  his  poor, 
dead  child  to  the  care  of  others.  With  the 
wages  he  retains  for  drink,  he  refuses  to  buy 
that  lifeless  form  a  coffi.n  and  a  grave ! 

Or  look  there.  You  have  found  a  young 
man,  the  victim  of  an  incurable  malady,  sink- 
ing into  the  tomb.  Dying  is  hard  enough 
work  amid  all  the  comforts  which  wealth, 
and  kindness,  and  piety  can  command;  but 
in  that  winter  time,  with  the  frosty  wind 
blowing  through  the  broken  panes,  he  is 
shivering  while  he  seeks  in  the  Bible  its 
precious  comforts ;  and  how  much  his  body 
is  emaciated  is  too  plainly  visible  beneath 
that  single  threadbare  coverlet.  You  could 
not  have  stood  that;  no  more  could  we. 
And  where,  at  our  next  visit,  are  the  warm 
comforts  charity  had  provided  ?  They  have 
gone  for  drink  !  Gone  for  drink  !  For  such 
purpose,  what  incarnate  demons  have  plucked 


102  THE   CITY: 

the  blankets  from  that  wasted  form — steeling 
their  iron  hearts  against  his  cries,  his  struggles, 
his  unavailing  tears  ?  Accursed  vice !  that 
can  sink  man  beneath  the  brutes  that  perish. 
The  barbarous  deed  was  done  bj^  a  father's 
hand!  That  father,  instigated  and  aided  bj 
her  who  had  suckled  him  on  her  breast,  a 
breast  twice  withered — hy  worse  than  age, 
deformed  and  dried  up  I 

Did  I  saj  sinks  man  beneath  the  brutes  that 
perish  ?  It  is  a  libel  on  creation  to  speak  of  a 
drunkard  as  a  brute.  The  bear,  when  she  re- 
fuses to  desert  her  cub,  when  she  makes  the 
most  daring,  desperate  efforts  to  protect  her 
offspring,  when,  rearing  herself  on  her  hind 
feet,  she  stands  up  growling  to  face  the  hunter, 
and  offer  her  shaggy  bosom  to  his  spear,  ex- 
torts our  admiration ;  as  does  the  little  crea- 
ture which,  when  the  spear  is  buried  in  a 
mother's  heart,  leaps  on  her  dead  body,  and, 
giving  battle  to  the  dogs,  attempts  bravely, 
though  vainly  to  defend  it.  Look  at  this  case, 
and  that.  How  beautiful  is  nature,  how  base 
is  sin  I     Dr.  Kane  tells  a  story  of  a  savage 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  103 

man  in.  those  arctic  regions,  where  God  has 
poured  such  affection  into  the  bosom  of  the 
fiercest    animals,    which     excites    our    pity. 
Noluk,  when  all  other   families  in  the  time 
of  famine  had  fled  from  their  sick,  remained 
faithful  to  his  wife.     She  was  dying.     From 
waging  fierce  battle  with  the  monsters  of  the 
deep,  scaling  the  slippery  iceberg,  leaping  the 
cracks  of   the   ice-floe,    homeward   over   the 
snowy  wastes  he  drove  his  sledge  each  night, 
with  food  for  her.     The  evening  of  his  last 
visit  arrives.     He  approaches  the  rude  stone- 
hut,  looks  in,  and  through  a  window  sees  his 
wife  a  corpse,  and  his  infant  son  sucking  at 
her   frozen  breast.     Instinct   moved  him   to 
enter,   pluck    away   the   child,    and   make   a 
daring  effort  to  save   its  life   and  his  own. 
But  the  burden  of  a  sucking  babe,  the  press- 
ing fears  of  famine,  these  mastered  parental 
affection  ;  and,  claiming  our  pity  for  the  grief 
that  stood  in  his  eye  and  wrung  his  heart,  he 
turned  his   dogs  southward,  nor  crossed  the 
threshold. 
But  what  emotions  do  the  cases  1  have  told 


104  THE   CITY: 

you.  of  awaken?  To  be  matched  by  many 
and  surpassed  by  some  that  I  could  tell — sam- 
ples of  the  stock)  what  passion  can  they,  what 
passion  ought  they  to  move,  but  the  deepest 
indignation  ?  Nor  would  I,  however  fiercely 
it  may  run,  seek  to  stem  the  flood.  The  deep- 
er it  flows,  the  higher  it  rises,  the  stronger  it 
swells  and  rolls,  so  much  the  better.  I  would 
not  seek  to  stem,  but  to  direct  it — directing  it 
not  against  the  victims,  but  against  the  vice. 

I  pray  you  do  not  hate  the  drunkard ;  he 
hates  himself.  Do  not  despise  him ;  oh,  he 
cannot  sink  so  low  in  your  opinion  as  he  is 
sunk  in  his  own.  Your  hatred  and  contempt 
may  rivet,  but  will  never  rend  his  chains. 
Lend  a  kind  hand  to  pluck  him  from  the  mire. 
With  a  strong  hand  shatter  that  bowl — re- 
move the  temptations  which,  while  he  hates, 
he  cannot  resist.  Hate,  abhor,  tremble  at  hia 
sin.  And  for  pity's  sake,  for  God's  sake,  for 
Christ's  sake,  for  humanity's  sake,  rouse  your- 
selves to  the  question,  What  can  be  done? 
Without  heeding  others — w^iether  they  follow 
or  whether  they  stay — rushing  down  to  the 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  105 

beach,  throw  yourself  into  the  boat,  push 
away,  and  bend  on  the  oar,  like  a  man,  to  the 
♦vreck.  Say,  I  will  not  stand  by  and  see  my 
fellow-creatures  perish.  They  are  perishing 
To  save  them  I  will  do  anything.  What  lux- 
ury will  I  not  give  up?  What  indulgence 
will  I  not  abstain  from  ?  What  customs,  what 
shackles  of  old  habits  will  I  not  break,  that 
these  hands  may  be  freer  to  pluck  the  drown- 
ing from  the  deep?  God  my  help,  his  word 
my  law,  the  love  of  his  Son  my  ruling  motive, 
I  shall  never  balance  a  poor  personal  indul- 
gence against  the  good  of  my  country  and  the 
welfare  of  mankind.  Brethren,  such  resolu- 
tions, such  high,  and  holy,  and  sustained,  and 
self-denying  efforts,  the  height  of  this  evil  de- 
mands. 

Before  God  and  man,  before  the  church  and 
the  world,  I  impeach  Intemperance.  I  charge 
it  with  the  murder  of  innumerable  souls.  In 
this  country,  blessed  with  freedom  and  plenty, 
the  word  of  God  and  the  liberties  of  true  re- 
ligion, I  charge  it  as  the  cause — whatever  be 
their  source  elsewhere — of  almost  all  the  pov 


106  THE   CITY: 

ertj,  and  almost  all  tlie  crime,  and  almost  all 
the  misery,  and  almost  all  the  ignorance,  and 
almost  all  the  irreligion,  that  disgrace  and 
afflict  the  land.  "  I  am  not  mad,  most  noble 
Festus.  I  speak  the  words  of  truth  and  sober- 
ness." I  do  in  my  conscience  believe  that 
these  intoxicating  stimulants  have  sunk  into 
perdition  more  men  and  women  than  found  a 
grave  in  that  deluge  which  swept  over  the 
highest  hill-tops — engulphing  a  world,  of 
which  but  eight  were  saved.  As  compared 
with  other  vices,  it  may'  be  said  of  this,  ''  Saul 
has  slain  his  thousands,  but  David  his  tens  of 
thousands." 

8.  Consider  what  cure  we  should  apply  to  thit 
evil. 

The  grand  and  only  sovereign  remedy  for 
the  evils  of  this  world  is  the  gospel  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  I  believe  that.  There  is 
no  man  more  convinced  of  that  than  I  am. 
But  he  rather  hinders  than  helps  the  cause  of 
religion  who  shuts  his  eyes  to  the  fact,  that,  in 
curing  souls,  as  in  curing  bodies,  many  things 


[TS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  107 

may  be  important  as  auxiliaries  to  the  remedy, 
wliich  cannot  properly  be  considered  as  reme- 
dies. In  the  day  of  his  resurrection  Lazarus 
owed  his  life  to  Christ ;  but  they  that  day  did 
good  service,  who  rolled  away  the  stone. 
They  were  allies  and  auxiliaries.  And  to 
such  in  the  battle  which  the  gospel  has  to 
wage  with  this  monster  vice,  allow  me  in 
closing  this  discourse  to  direct  your  attention. 
And  I  remark — 

First,  TJiat  the  legislature  may  render  essential 
service  in  this  cause. 

This  is  an  alliance  between  church  and  state 
which  no  man  could  quarrel  with.  Happy 
for  our  country,  if  by  such  help,  the  state 
would  thus  fulfil  to  the  church — the  woman 
of  prophecy — this  apocalyptic  vision  : — "  And 
the  serpent  cast  out  of  his  mouth,  water  as  a 
flood,  after  the  woman,  that  he  might  cause 
her  to  be  carried  away  of  the  flood.  And  the 
earth  helped  the  woman.  And  the  earth 
opened  her  mouth,  and  swallowed  up  the 
flood  which  the  dragon  cast  out  of  his  mouth  " 

Many  people  feel   no  sympathy   with  the 


108  THE  city: 

sufferings  of  the  lowest  class.  They  are  not 
hard-hearted ;  but  engrossed  with  their  own 
affairs,  or,  raised  far  above  them  in  social  po- 
sition, they  are  ignorant  of  their  temptations, 
and  trials.  Therefore  they  talk  ignorantly 
about  them ;  and  seldom  more  so  than  when 
they  repudiate  all  attempts  of  the  legislature 
by  restrictive  Acts  of  Parliament  to  abate,  if 
not  abolish,  this  evil.  They  have  their  reme- 
dies. Some  plead  for  better  lodgings  and 
sanitary  measures ;  which  we  also  regard  as 
highly  valuable.  Some  put  their  faith  in  edu- 
cation— an  agent,  the  importance  of  which,  to 
the  rising  generation,  it  is  impossible  to  over-. 
estimate.  Some  seem  to  have  no  confidence 
in  anything  but  the  preaching  of  the  gospel. 
To  one  or  other  of  these,  or  the  combined  lu- 
ll uence  of  them  all,  they  trust  for  the  cure  of 
drunkenness — repudiating  and  deprecating  all 
legislative  interference.  Now,  I  should  like 
as  much  as  they  to  see  the  very  lowest  of  oui 
people  so  elevated  in  their  tastes,  with  minds 
so  cultivated,  and  hearts  so  sanctified,  that 
they  could  resist   the   temptations   which  on 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  109 

every  hand  beset  them.     But  thousands,  tens 
of  thousands,  are  unable  to  do  so.     They  must 
be   helped  with  crutches   till  they  have   ac- 
quired the  power  to   walk.     They  must  be 
fenced  round  with  every  possible  protection 
until  they  are  "  rooted  and  grounded  in  the 
love  of  God."     In  the  country  I  have  often 
seen  a  little  child,  with  her  sun-browned  face 
and  long  golden  locks,  sweet  as  any  flower 
she  pressed  beneath  her  naked  foot,  merry  as 
any  bird  that  sung  from  bush  or  brake,  driv- 
ing the  cattle  home ;  and  with  fearless  hand 
controlling  the  sulky  leader  of  the  herd,  as 
with  armed  forehead  and  colossal  strength  he 
quailed   before   that    slight    image    of   God. 
Some  days  ago,  I  saw  a  different  sight — such 
a  child,  with  hanging  head,  no  music  in  his 
voice,  nor  blush  but  that  of  shame  upon  his 
cheek,  leading  home  a  drunken  father  along 
the  public  street.     The  man   required  to  be 
led,  guided,  guarded.     And  into  a  condition 
hardly  less  helpless  large  masses  of  our  people 
have  sunk.     I  don't  wonder  that  they  drink. 
Look  at  their  unhappy  and  most  trying  cir- 
10 


110  THE  city: 

cumstances.  Many  of  them  are  born  with  a 
propensity  to  this  vice.  They  suck  it  in  with 
a  mother's  milk ;  for  it  is  a  well-ascertained 
fact  that  other  things  are  hereditary  besides 
cancer,  and  coDsumption,  and  insanity.  The 
drunken  parent  transmits  to  his  children  a 
proneness  to  his  fatal  indulgence.  The  foul 
atmosphere  which  many  of  them  breathe,  the 
hard  labor  by  which  many  of  them  earn  their 
bread,  produce  a  prostration  which  seeks  in 
stimulants  something  to  rally  the  system,  nor 
will  be  debarred  from  their  use  by  any  pros- 
pect of  danger,  or  experience  of  a  correspond- 
ing reaction.  With  our  improved  tastes,  our 
books,  our  recreations,  our  domestic  comforts, 
we  have  no  adequate  idea  of  the  temptations 
to  which  the  poor  are  exposed,  and  from 
which  it  is  the  truest  kindness  to  protect  them. 
They  are  cold,  and  the  glass  is  warmth.  They 
are  hungry,  and  drink  is  food.  They  are 
miserable,  and  there  is  laughter  in  the  flowing 
cup.  They  are  sunk  in  their  own  esteem,  and 
the  bowl  or  the  bottle  surrounds  the  drunkard 
with  a  bright-colored  halo  of  self-respect,  and, 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  Ill 

SO  long  as  the  fumes  are  in  his  brain,  he  feela 
himself  a  man.     "  They  drink  to  forget  their 
poverty,  and  remember  their  misery  no  more." 
Such  indeed  has  been   the  only  training, 
such  are  the  physical,  economical,  moral,  and 
religious   conditions   of  large   masses  of  the 
people,  that  their  safety  lies,  not  in  resisting 
temptation,  but  escaping  it.     None  know  that 
better  than  themselves.     How  would  thou- 
sands hail  and  bless  the  day,  which,  shuttmg 
up  the  drinking-shops,  would  preserve  them 
from  temptations  which  are  their  ruin,  and  to 
which  they  at  length  passively  yield  them- 
selves ;  although,  as  one  said,  they  know  theii 
doors  to  be  the  way  to  hell.     Yet  not  passive- 
ly, until  this  fatal  pleasure  has  paralyzed  the 
mind  more  even  than  the  body.     Many  strug- 
gle hard  to  overcome  this  passion.     There  is  a 
Ions  and  terrible  fight  between  the  man  and 
the  serpeni  that  has  hnn  in  his  coils ;  between 
the-  love  of  wife  and  children  and  the  love  of 
drink.     Never  more  manfully  than  some  of 
them    did    swimmer   struggle   in   his   hour  of 
agony  —  breasting   the    waves    and   straining 


il2  THE  cirr: 

every  nerve  to  reach  the  distant  shore  Would 
Parliament  but  leave  this  matter  to  these  peo- 
ple themselves — would  tbej  for  once  delegate 
their  powers  of  legislation  to  the  inhabitants 
of  our  lowest  districts — we  are  confident  that, 
by  their  all  but  unanimous  vote,  every  drink- 
ing-shop  in  theii  neighborhoods  would  be 
shut  up.  The  biids,  which  are  now  drawn 
into  the  mouth  of  the  serpent,  would  soar 
aloft  on  free  and  joyous  wing  to  sing  the 
praises  of  the  hand  that  closed  its  jaws,  of  the 
heel  that  crushed  its  head.  And  so  long  as 
rehgion  stands  by — silent  and  unprotesting 
against  the  temptations  with  which  men, 
greedy  of  gain,  and  Governments,  greedy  of 
revenue,  surround  the  wretched  victims  of  the 
basest  vice — it  appears  to  me  an  utter  mock- 
ery for  her  to  go  with  the  word  of  God  in  her 
hand,  teaching  them  to  say,  "Lead  us  not  into 
temptation." 

As  a  man,  as  well  as  minister  of  that  blessed 
gospel  which  recognizes  no  distinction  between 
rich  and  poor,  I  protest  against  the  wrongs  of 
a  class  that  are  to  the  full  as  unfortunate  a.'» 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  IIH 

thev  are  sfuilty.  They  deserve  succor  rather 
tnan  censure.  They  are  more  to  be  pitied  than 
punished.  And,  assuming  the  office  of  their 
advocate,  I  wish  to  know  why  the  upper 
classes  of  society  should  enjoy  from  the  legis- 
lature a  protection  denied  to  those  who  stand 
more  in  need  of  it  ?  Gambling-houses  were 
proved  before  Parliament  to  be  ruining  the 
youth  of  the  aristocracy.  Nobility  complained 
Coronets  and  broad  acres  were  in  danger. 
Parliament  rose  to  the  rescue.  She  put  forth 
her  strong  hand,  and  by  a  sweeping,  summary, 
most  righteous  measure,  put  the  evil  down. 
It  was  also  proved  in  Parliament  that  Betting- 
houses  were  corrupting  the  morals  of  our 
merchants'  clerks,  our  shopmen,  our  trades- 
men, and  others  of  the  middle  classes  of  so- 
ciety. Once  more  Parliament  rose  up  in  its 
migbt,  threw  its  broad  shield  over  wealth  and 
commerce,  and  closed  every  betting-house  in 
the  metropolis.  Who  talked  then  about  the 
freedom  of  trade  ?  When  the  honor  of  noble 
families,  or  the  wealth  of  our  merchants,  and 
the  honesty  of  their  servants  demanded  pro- 
10* 


Ill  THE  CITT: 

tection,  wlio  talked  about  the  liberty  of  the 
subject?  Who  proposed  to  leave  these  evils 
to  be  met  by  education  and  such  means  as 
education?  I  don't  complain  of,  but  com- 
mend the  measures  which  Parliament  adopted. 
Only,  I  want  to  know,  if  the  virtues  of  hum- 
ble families  and  the  happiness  of  the  poor  are 
less  worthy  of  protection  than  the  wealth  of 
bankers,  and  the  honors  of  an  ancient  nobil- 
ity ?  I  want  to  know  if  the  bodies  of  the 
higher  and  wealthier  classes  are  of  better  clay, 
or  their  souls  of  finer  elements,  than  those  of 
the  very  lowest  of  the  people  ?  Yet  I  would 
undertake  to  prove  that,  year  by  year,  thou- 
sands and  tens  of  thousands  of  our  poor  lose 
character,  virtue,  fortune,  body  and  soul,  in 
those  drinking-shops  that  glare  upon  the  pub- 
lic eye — which  the  law  does  not  forbid,  but 
license.  For  every  one  the  gambling  or  bet-- 
ting-house  ruined,  they  ruin  hundreds.  I 
wish  that  those  who  govern  this  noble  coun- 
try should  be  able  to  say  with  Him  who  gov- 
brns  the  universe,  "  Are  not  my  ways  equal  ?" 
N^or  let  our  legislators  be  scared  from  their 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  115 

duty  in  this  case,  any  more  than  tbcy  were  in 
the  other,  by  the  allegation  that  to  shut  up 
the  drinkmg-shop  will  not  cure  but  rather  ag- 
gravate the  evil,  by  leading  to  illicit  traffic 
and   secret  drinking.      The  removal    of  the 
temptation  may  not  always  cure  the  drunk- 
ard.    But  it  will  certainly  check  the  growth 
of  his  class,  and  prevent  many  others  from 
learning  his  habits — until  sanguine  men  might 
entertain  the^blessed  hope  that,  like  the  mon- 
sters of  a  former  epoch,  which  now  lie  en- 
tombed in  the  rocks,  drunkards  may  be  num- 
bered among  the  extinct  races,  classified  with 
the  winged  serpents  and  gigantic  sloths  that 
were  once  inhabitants  of  our  globe. 

The  subject  before  us  is  eminently  calculated 
to  illustrate  the  profound  remark  of  one,  who 
was  well  acquainted  with  the  temptations  and 
circumstances  of  the  poor.  He  said : — "  It  is 
justice,  not  charity,  that  the  poor  most  need." 
And  all  we  ask  is,  that  you  be  a^  kind  to  them 
as  to  the  rich ;  that  you  guard  the  o'le  class  as 
carefully  as  you  guard  the  other  from  the 
temptations  peculiar  to  their  lot.     I  am  sorry 


116  THE  citt: 

to  say — ^but  truth  and  the  interests  of  those 
who,  howevt/i*  sunk  and  degraded,  are  bone  of 
our  bone  and  flesh  of  our  flesh,  require  that  I 
should  say — that  this  is  not  done.  The  "poor," 
says  Amos,  *'are  sold  for  a  pair  of  shoes," 
and  with  us  they  are  sold  to  save  the  wealth 
of  the  rich.  In  this  I  make  no  charge  which 
I  am  not  prepared  to  prove.  For  example : — 
Certain  measures  were  proposed  in  Parliament 
with  the  view  of  promoting  the  comforts  and 
improving  the  moral  habits  of  the  common 
people.  It  was  admitted  that  these,  by  intro- 
ducing weak  French  and  Ehenish  wines  in 
room  of  ardent  spirits  and  strongly  intoxicat- 
ing liquors,  would  be  attended  with  the  most 
happy  and  desirable  result.  Yet  they  were 
rejected.  And  rejected  because*  their  adop- 
tion, although  it  saved  the  people,  would  dam- 
age the  revenue.  As  if  there  was  not  money 
enough  in  the  pockets  of  the  wealthy,  through 
means  of  other  taxes,  to  meet  the  debts  of  the 
nation  and  sustain  the  honor  of  the  Crown. 
How  different  the  tone  of  morals  even  in 
China  I    The  ministers  of  that  country  proved 


ITS   SINS   AND  SORROWS.  117 

to  their  sovereign  that  he  would  avert  all 
danger  of  war  with  Britain,  and  also  add  im- 
mensely to  his  revenue,  if  he  would  consent 
to  legalize  the  trade  in  opium.  He  refused, 
firmly  refused,  nobly  refused.  And  it  were  a 
glorious  day  for  Britain,  a  happy  day  for  ten 
thousand  miserable  homes — a  day  for  bonfires, 
and  ju'  ilant  cannon,  and  merry  bells,  and 
banner,  d  processions,  and  holy  thanksgivings, 
which  saw  our  beloved  Queen  rise  from  her 
throne,  and  in  the  name  of  this  great  nation 
address  to  her  Lords  and  Commons  the  mem- 
orable speech  of  that  pagan  monarch  : — "  I 
will  never  consent  to  raise  my  revenue  out  of 
the  ruin  and  vices  of  my  people."  With  such 
a  spirit  may  God  imbue  our  land ! — "  Even  so 
come,  Lord  Jesus.     Come  quickly." 

Secondly,  ThoA  the  example  of  abstaining  from 
all  intoxicating  liquors  would  greatly  aid  in  the 
cure  of  this  evil. 

No  principle  is  more  clearly  inculcated  in 
the  word  of  God,  and  none,  carried  out  into 
action,  makes  a  man  more  Christ-like  than 
self-denial,     "  If  meat  make  my  brother  to  of- 


118  THE   CITY: 

fend,  I  will  eat  no  flesh  while  the  world  stand- 
eth,  lest  I  make  my  brother  to  offend."  That 
is  the  principle  of  temperance,  as  I  hold  it.  I 
cannot  agree  with  those  who,  in  their  anxiety 
for  good,  attempt  to  prove  too  much,  and  con- 
demn as  positively  sinful  the  moderate  use  of 
stimulants.  Bat  still  less  sympathy  have  I 
with  those  who  dare  to  call  in  Jesus  C  hrist  to 
lend  his  holy  countenance  to  their  lu  curious 
boards.  It  is  shocking  to  hear  men  attempt 
to  prove,  by  the  word  of  God,  that  it  is  a  duty 
to  drink — to  fill  the  wine-cup  and  drain  off 
the  glass. 

I  was  able  to  use  without  abusing.  But 
seeing  to  what  monstrous  abuse  the  thing  had 
grown,  seeing  in  what  a  multitude  of  cases  the 
use  was  followed  by  the  abuse,  and  seeing  how 
the  example  of  the  uj^per  classes,  the  practices 
of  ministers,  and  the  habits  of  church  mem- 
bers were  used  to  shield  and  sanction  indulg- 
ences so  often  carried  to  excess,  T  saw  the  case 
to  be  one  for  the  apostle's  warning  : — "  Take 
heed  lest  by  any  means  this  liberty  of  yours 
become  a  stumbling  block  to  them  that  are 


ITS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  119 

weak."     Paul  says  of  meat  oifeied  unto  an 
i(Jol : — "  Meat   commendeth   us  not  to  God  , 
for  neither  if  we  eat  are  we  the  better,  neither 
if  we  eat  not  are  we  the  worse."     And  will 
any  man   deny,  that,  save   in   medical  cases, 
I  can  with  the  most  perfect  truth  adopt  the 
words  of  inspiration,  and  say  of  these  stim- 
ulants  what   Paul   says   of  meat :  —  "  Drink 
commendeth  us  not  to  God ;  for  neither  if  we 
drink  are  we  the  better,  and  neither  if  we 
drink  not  are  we  the  worse."     On  the  contra- 
ry, the  testimony  of  physicians,  the  experience 
of  those  who,  in  arctic  cold  or  Indian  heat, 
have  been  exposed  to  influences  the  most  try- 
ing to  the  constitution ;  the  experience  also  of 
every  one  who  has  exchanged  temperate  in- 
dulgence for  rigid  abstinence,   have  demon- 
strated that,  if  we  drink  not,  we  are  the  bet- 
ter.   There  is  no  greater  delusion  in  this  world 
than  that  health,  or  strength,  or  joyousness  is 
dependent  on  the  use  of  stimulants.     So  far  as 
happiness  is  concerned,  we  can  afford  to  leave 
such  means  to  those  who  inhabit  the  doleful 
dens  of  sm.     They  cannot  want  them,     Th*»y 


120  THE  CITY. 

have  to  relieve  the  darkness  with  lurid  gleama. 
They  have  to  drown  remorse  in  the  bowl's  ob- 
livion. They  have  to  bury  the  recollection  of 
what  they  were,  the  sense  of  what  they  are. 
and  the  foreboding  of  what  they  shall  be — as 
one  of  them  said,  ^'we  poor  girls  could  not 
lead  the  life  we  do  without  the  drink." 

Grant  that  there  were  a  sacrifice  in  abstain- 
ing, what  Christian  man  would  hesitate  to 
make  it,  if  by  doing  so  he  can  honor  God  and 
bless  mankind  ?  If  by  a  life-long  abstinence 
from  all  the  pleasures  which  the  wine-cup 
yields  I  can  save  one  child  from  a  life  of  mis- 
ery, I  can  save  one  mother  from  premature 
grey  hairs,  and  griefs  that  bring  her  to  the 
grave,  I  can  save  one  woman  from  ruin, 
bringing  him  to  Jesus  I  can  save  one  man 
from  perdition,  I  should  hold  myself  well  re- 
paid. Living  thus,  living  not  for  myself,  when 
death  summons  me  to  my  account,  and  the 
Judge  says,  Man,  where  is  thy  brother?  I 
shall  be  found  walking,  although  at  a  hum- 
ble distance,  in  the  footprints  of  him  who  took 
bis  way  to   Calvary.     He  said,  '*If  any  man 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  121 

will  come  after  me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and 
take  up  his  cross  daily,  and  follow  me."  This 
cross,  which  has  been  held  high  in  the  battle- 
field by  men  nobly  fighting  for  their  faith, 
which  rose  above  the  scafibld  red  with  mar- 
tyr's blood,  which  has  been  borne  by  mission- 
aries to  pagan  lands,  may  be  carried  into  our 
scenes  of  social  enjoyment,  and,  a  brighter 
ornament  than  any  jewels  flashing  on  beauty's 
breast,  may  adorn  the  festive  table.  If  this 
abstinence  is  a  cross,  all  the  more  honor  to 
the  men  who  carry  it.  It  is  a  right  noble 
thing  to  live  for  God  and  the  good  of  men. 

I  attempt  to  dictate  on  this  subject  to  no 
man.  Believing  it  to  be  one  specially  open 
to  the  apostolic  rule,  "  Let  every  man  be  fully 
persuaded  in  his  own  mind;"  I  would  yet 
venture  to  appeal  to  my  brethren  in  the  min- 
istry, and  to  the  members  of  every  Christian 
church.  There  cannot  be  a  doubt,  not  the 
shadow  of  a  doubt,  that  if,  devoting  your- 
selves Christ-hke  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the 
good  of  men,  you  saw  it  to  be  your  duty  to 
embrace  the  principle  of  abstinence,  the  result 
XI 


122  THE  city: 

would  be  remarkable.  Such  would  be  the 
influence  of  your  example  within  your  own 
household,  and  outside  in  your  different  neigh- 
borhoods, and  such  also  the  power  which  you 
could  exercise  in  the  Parliament  of  our  coun- 
try, that  intemperance  with  all  its  direful 
damning  consequences  would  be,  to  a  great 
extent  and  in  time,  banished  from  the  land. 
"What  a  land  ours  then  would  be !  Believed 
from  this  mill-stone  which  bangs  about  her 
neck,  and  weighs  her  down  and  bends  her 
giant  power  to  the  earth,  into  what  an  attitude 
and  height  of  power  would  sbe  rise  ?  Who 
then  would  dare  to  insult  her  flag  ?  Who  then 
would  dare  to  cross  her  path,  when  she  went 
forth  in  her  might  and  virtue  to  assert  the  lib- 
erties of  the  world — to  break  the  fetters  of  the 
slave  or  fight  the  battle  of  the  oppressed. 
She  would  hear  no  more  taunts  from  the 
slave-holders  of  the  West  or  the  despots  of  the 
South.  Her  piety,  and  sobriety,  and  virtues, 
preserving  salt,  elements  of  national  immor- 
tality, she  might  hope  to  be  exempted  from 
the  fat€  of  all  preceding  empires,  that,  one 


ITS   SINS  AND   SORROWS.  123 

after  another,  in   unfailing  succession,   nave 
gone  down  into  the  tomb. 

This  moral  revolution  in  our  national  habits, 
this  greatest  of  all  reforms,  every  one  can  en- 
gage in.  Women  and  children,  as  well  as 
men,  can  help  it  onwards  to  the  goal.  It  is 
attainable,  if  we  would  only  attempt  it.  It  is 
hopeful,  if  we  would  but  give  the  subject  a 
fair  consideration.  Why  should  not  the 
power  of  Christianity,  by  its  mighty  argu- 
ments of  love  and  self  denial,  lead  to  the 
disuse  of  intoxicating  stimulants,  and  so 
achieve  that  which  Mahommedanism  and 
Hindooism  have  done  ?  Must  the  cross  pale 
before  the  crescent  ?  Must  the  divine  religion 
of  Jesus,  with  that  God-man  upon  the  tree 
for  its  invincible  ensign,  blush  before  such 
rivals,  and  own  itself  unable  to  accomplish 
what  false  faiths  have  done?  Tell  us  not 
that  it  cannot  be  done  It  can  be  done.  It 
has  been  done — done  by  the  enemies  of  the 
CI  OSS  of  Christ — done  by  the  followers  of  an 
impostor — done  by  worshippers  of  stocks  and 
stones.     *'  And    their    rock  is   not  like   oui 


124:      THE  city:   its  sins  and  sorrows. 

Rock/'  If  that  is  true — and  it  cannot  be 
gainsaid — I  may  surely  claim  from  every  man 
who  has  faith  in  God,  and  loves  Jesus,  and 
is  willing  to  live  for  the  benefit  of  mankind, 
a  candid,  a  full,  and  a  prayerful  consideration 
of  this  subject.  But,  whatever  be  the  means, 
whatever  the  weapons  you  will  judge  it  best 
to  employ,  when  trumpets  are  blowing  in 
Zion,  and  the  alarm  is  sounding  and  echoing 
in  God's  holy  mountain,  come — come  to  the 
help  of  the  Lord  against  the  mighty,  crowd  to 
the  standard,  throw  yourself  into  the  thick 
of  battle,  and  die  in  harness  fighting  for  the 
cause  of  Jesus.  So  "to  live  is  Christ,  and  to 
die  is  gain." 


SERMON    IV. 

**  When  he  beheld  the  city,  he  wept  over  it" — Lxikb  xlx.  41. 

A  REMARKABLE  incident  occurred  dur- 
iiig  the  last  unhappy,  and — since  it  was 
waged  between  brethren,  sprung  of  a  common 
parentage,  and  holding  a  common  faith — I  will 
add,  unnatural  war  between  our  country  and 
America.  We  had  taken  a  prize.  A  very 
gallant  young  of&cer  was  placed  in  command 
of  her.  Unfortunately  for  us,  as  the  event 
proved,  her  original  captain  and  part  of  his 
crew,  were  not  transferred  to  another  ship, 
but  allowed  to  remain  on  board.  The  British 
lieutenant  had  a  number  of  our  own  brave 
men  sent  along  with  him — a  force  sufficient 
to  work  the  ship,  and,  in  a  fair  stand  up  fight, 
to  overpower  the  prisoners,  should  they  at- 
tempt to  retake  the  vessel.  Hoisting  British 
colors,  they  parted  company  wdth  the  captur- 
11* 


126  THE  city: 

ing  ship,  and  with  our  officer  on  the  quarter- 
deck made  homeward  with  their  prize.  On- 
ward the  ship  ploughs  her  way  through  the 
billows,  and  all  seems  safe.  After  some  time, 
the  American  captain  accosts  our  officer  on 
the  deck.  He  desires  him  to  give  up  his  sword 
and  the  command  of  the  vessel.  Surprised, 
indignant  at  such  a  strange  and  insolent  de- 
mand, he  prepares  to  resist.  Whereupon  the 
American,  drawing  a  pistol  from  his  belt  to 
meet  the  other's  sword,  conscious  of  his  power, 
but  unwilling  to  shed  the  blood  of  a  gallant 
man,  coolly  added  : — "  You  must  surrender, 
your  men  are  all  drunk  below."  The  officer, 
however,  did  resist,  and  was  shot  dead.  His 
life  was  thrown  away  ;  his  gallant  bravery 
was  of  no  a-^^ail.  Intemperance  had  betrayed 
the  ship — ^the  men  had  all  been  drenched  with 
rum  and  laudanum. 

This  story  is  as  instructive  as  tragic.  For 
that  ship,  won  not  by  fair  fighting,  but  a  foul 
trick,  carrying  at  her  mast  head  foreign  colors, 
with  a  new  commander  on  her  quarter-deck, 
liev  ere  t  below  in  irons,  and  her  head  biought 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  127 

round,  and  bearing  awaj  to  the  coasts  of  the 
enemy,  presents  to  my  eye  a  picture  of  the 
fate  of  many.  By  the  same  instrumentality 
they  are  seduced — betra}ed  into  the  hands 
of  the  Adversary.  By  intemperance,  also, 
they  are  "  taken  captive  of  the  devil  at  his 
will."  Had  there  been  no  intoxicating  liquors 
on  board,  had  she  sailed  under  the  temperance 
flag,  as  it  is  called,  that  ship  had  not  been  lost, 
nor  had  her  crew  pined  in  foreign  prison,  nor 
had  that  gallant  man,  who  had  otherwise  re- 
turned to  his  mother's  arms,  rich  with  prize 
money,  and  wearing  laurels  on  his  brow, 
lain  there — a  bleeding  corpse  upon  the  deck. 
There  is  no  doubt  of  that.  No  man  will  at- 
teijipt  to  deny  that.  And  we  appeal  to  your 
candor,  if  this  is  not  as  true,  that  thousands  of 
our  fellow-creatures  had  never  been  lost,  many 
a  poor  servant  girl  had  never  forfeited  her 
character  and  lost  her  place,  many  a  trades- 
man had  never  lost  his  employment  and  been 
reduced  to  beggary,  many  a  merchant  had 
never  lost  his  business  and  become  a  bank- 
rupt, many  a  woman  had  never  lost  her  virtue 


128  THE  CITV. 

and  wrecked  her  peace,  many  a  man  and  wo- 
man bad  never  lost  botli  soul  and  body,  if 
they  had  practised  habits  of  abstinence.  Drink 
has  been  their  ruin.  And  their  ruin  had 
never  been,  if,  so  to  speak,  they  had  sailed 
the  voyage  of  Kfe  with  no  intoxicating  liquors 
on  board.  That  ruse  de  guerre  so  successfully 
played  on  the  "  high  seas,"  is  one  of  Satan's 
most  common,  e very-day  services.  These 
stimulants  w^eaken  the  reason,  while  they  in- 
flame the  passions.  They  qu'cken  corruption, 
whilst  they  stupify  conscience.  And  I  believe 
— and  who  does  not  ? — that  but  for  the  use  of 
them,  thousands  would  never  have  taken  that 
first  step  in  sin,  which,  step  by  step,  and  step 

by  step,  has  conducted  their  feet  down  to  ruin. 

• 
Convinced  as  I  am — and,  as  I  presume  you 

are — of  the  innate  depravity  of  human  nature, 
I  think  that  we  have  no  need  to  increase  the 
dangers  of  temptation  and  arm  it  with  addi- 
tional powers.  They  who  carry  gunpowder 
on  board  are  careful  of  fires  and  lights — nor 
careless  even  of  a  spark,  lest  that,  reaching 
the  magazine,  should  blow  the  ship  out  of  the 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROW^.  129 

«vater,  and  the  crew  into  eternity.  Believing 
as  I  do  in  the  weakness  of  our  nature,  I  think 
that  we  have  little  need  by  anything  to  in- 
crease our  proneness  to  fall.  The  path  of  a 
man,  even  of  a  man  on  the  highway  to  heav- 
en, is  never  one  of  perfect  safety,  and  is 
often  one  of  imminent  danger.  It  resembles 
those  mountain-passes  in  the  Higher  Alps, 
where  the  narrow  road,  its  broken  surface,  and 
the  dizzy  depths  below,  require  a  steady  foot 
and  the  coolest  head ;  one  false,  one  stumbling 
step,  and  you  are  gone,  over  the  rocks,  sheer 
down  a  hundred  fathoms,  where  the  angry 
torrent  foams  in  the  bottom  of  a  gloomy  gorge, 
white  as  the  snows  it  flows  from ;  or — no  hap- 
pier fate — you  are  left  lying,  mid- way  down,  on 
some  projecting  crag,  a  mangled  mass — a  ban- 
quet for  the  vultures.  Many  such  dangerous 
passes  there  are  in  the  journey  of  life.  The 
very  next  turn,  for  anything  we  know,  may 
bring  us  on  one.  Turn  that  projecting  point 
which  hides  the  path  before  you,  and  you  are 
suddenly  in  circumstances  which  demand  that 
reason  be  strong,  and  conscience  be  tender, 


130  THE   CITY: 

and  hope  be  bright,  and  fliith  be  vigorous, 
and  the  prayer  be  ready  to  spring  from  our 
lips,  "  Lord,  hold  up  my  goings,  that  my  foot- 
steps slip  not." 

I  leave  this  part  of  my  subject ;  but  before 
I  leave  it,  let  me  appeal  to  the  love  and  a,nx- 
ieties  of  Christian  parents — of  every  parent. 
If  you  believe,  as  a  foolish  mother  once  said 
to  me,  when  gently  warning  her  to  guard  her 
3hild,  "  There  is  no  ill,  sir,  about  my  child,"  I 
have  nothing  now  to  say,  but,  God  pity  the 
child  that  has  such  a  mother.  Hoping  better 
things  of  you,  brethren,  let  me  put  it  to  you, 
whether  you  are  not  most  likely  to  preserve 
your  children  from  many  temptations,  and  lay 
a  good  foundation  for  their  well-doing,  and 
your  own  parental  comfort,  by  training  them 
up  in  the  early  and  entire  disuse  of  what  is 
the  ruin  of  so  many  families,  the  curse  of  so 
many  homes,  and  what,  if  not  taught  to  .like, 
they  have  no  craving  for.  Apply  to  this,  as 
to  other  things,  the  lesson  of  holy  Scripture, 
''  Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go, 
and  when  he  is  old,  he  will  not  depart  from 


ITS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  181 

it."  Surel}^,  oh  surely,  we  have  no  need, 
either  for  ourselves  or  children,  to  create 
temptations — rashly  to  court  dangers  which 
we  can  avoid.  It  is  a  hard  fight  at  the  best 
to  get  to  heaven.  We  shall  get  fighting 
enough  without  challenging  it.  We  should 
leave  vaporing  fools  to  repeat  the  bravado  of 
the  Philistine.  Let  no  man  step  out  from  the 
ranks  of  the  cross,  even  from  the  side  of 
Christ,  to  bid  defiance  to  the  devil,  saying, 
''  Give  me  a  man  to  fight  with."  Our  safety 
lies  most,  not  in  fighting  but  in  fleeing  tempta- 
tion— in  ever  remembering  this  solemn  truth, 
''  The  righteous  scarcely  are  saved." 

These  views  I  press  on  no  man,  but  present 
to  the  candid  and  prayerful  consideration  of 
all.  But  if  these  views  do  not  meet  your 
favor,  nor  commend  themselves  to  yonr  con- 
science before  God,  if  you  think  it  best  and 
wisest  to  leave  yourselves  and  your  children, 
and  others,  exposed  to  the  terrible  temptations 
which  I  think  it  Christian  prudence  to  avoid, 
then  there  is  the  more  need  that  you  be  fully 
armed  for  the  battle.     To  save  our  country 


132  THE   CITY: 

4 

and  our  religion,  there  is  the  more  need  that 
you  apply  a  prompt  and  effectual  remedy  to 
other  two  great  evils,  to  which,  as  belonging 
to  the  sins  and  sorrows  of  the  city,  I  now  re- 
quest your  attention. 

m.  Ignorance,  oi  want  of  education. 

First,  Let  us  look  at  this  evil  as  it  exists  among 
the  lowest  classes. 

Our  blessed  Lord  was  born  in  a  stable. 
And  the  stable  which  marked  the  beginning, 
like  the  cross  which  stood  at  the  end  of  his 
life,  has  been  always  regarded  as  a  prominent 
feature  of  his  humiliation.  Yet  I  have  seen 
some  who  were  born  in  even  more  humiliat- 
ing circumstances.  Many  years  ago — for  the 
subject  is  not  new  to  us — we  were  attempting 
to  sound  the  depths  of  city-sins  and  city-sor- 
rows. When  engaged  in  this  pursuit,  we 
visited  the  police-office  at  dead  of  night.  It 
was  a  chamber  of  horrors.  There,  lost,  guilty, 
degraded  humanity  was  represented  by  a 
wretched  object  dying  beside  the  fire,  in  the 
last  stages  of  consumption — ^the  sister  of  a  min- 


ITS  SINS   AJSTD   SORKOWS*  133 

ister  of  the  gospel.    She  had  led  a  life  of  the  low- 
est infamy,  and,  a  houseless  outcast,  was  drain- 
ing off  there  the  dregs  of  a  bitter  cup.     But  if 
that  and  many  other  cases  filled  us  with  hor- 
ror, some  moved  our  pity ;  -none  more  than 
two  sleeping  infants,  the  twin  offspring  of  a 
poor  wandering  creature  who  had  given  birth 
to  them  the  day  before  within  the  walls  of 
that  police-office.     What   a  fate  was  theirs  1 
What  an  ominous  beginning!      What  a  life 
of  hardship,  cruelty,  sin,  and  misery  lay  be- 
fore these  two  unconscious  innocents !     The 
shadow  of  their  birth-place  was  thrown  black 
and  forward  on  their  future  destiny.     It  need- 
ed no  seer  to  stand  by  that  rude  crib  and  tell 
their  fortune.     They  had  hardly  a  chance  in 
life.      They  had  heaven  in  death;  and  no- 
where had  death  looked  less  grim  than  in  that 
grim  birth-chamber,  had  he  come  and  plucked 
these  two  buds  from  the  parent-tree,  that  they 
might  blow  in  heaven  on  Jesus'  breast. 

These  infants  were  types  of  a  class,  with 
which,  although  somewhat  better  born,  yet  in 
no  way  better  bred,  our  large  cities  swar.n, 


134    ,  THE  city: 

People — people  who  find  it  difficult  enough, 
with  all  the  appliances  of  a  good  education 
and  religious  training,  to  keep  their  children 
in  the  paths  of  honesty  and  rectitude — won- 
der that  there  is  "so  much  crime.  If  they  saw 
what  some  of  us  have  seen,  and  knew  what 
some  of  us  have  known,  they  would  still  won- 
der, but  wonder  there  was  so  little  crime.  To 
expect  from  those  who  have  been  reared  in 
the  darkest  ignorance,  and  in  a  very  hot-bed 
of  temptations,  anything  else  but  crime,  is 
sheer  folly.  A  man  might  as  well  wonder 
that  he  does  not  see  wheat  or  barley  growing 
in  our  streets — where  plough  never  goes,  and 
no  seed  is  sown.  What  can  a  farmer  expect 
to  find  in  a  field  left  fallow,  abandoned  to 
nature,  to  the  floating  thistle-down  and  every 
seed  furnished  with  wings  to  fly,  but  evidence 
of  his  own  neglect  in  a  rank,  vile  crop  of 
weeds? 

Look  at  the  case  of  a  boy  whom  I  saw  lately. 
He  was  but  twelve  years  of  age,  and  had  been 
seven  times  in  jail.  The  term  of  his  imprison- 
ment was  rjm  out,  and  so  he  had  doffed  the 


ITS   SINS  AND  SORROWS.  135 

prison  garb  and  resumed  his  own.  It  was  the 
depth  of  winter ;  and  having  neither  shoes  nor 
stockings,  his  red,  naked  feet  were  upon  the 
frozen  ground.  Had  jou  seen  him  shivering 
in  his  scanty  dress — the  misery  pictured  on  an 
otherwise  comely  face — the  tears  that  went 
dropping  over  his  cheeks  as  the  child  told  his 
pitiful  story — you  would  have  forgotten  that 
he  had  been  a  thief,  and  only  seen  before  you 
an  unhappy  creature  more  worthy  of  a  kind 
word,  a  loving  look,  a  helping  hand,  than  the 
guardianship  of  a  turnkey  and  the  dreary  soli- 
tude  of  a  jail. 

His  mother  was  in  the  grave.  His  father 
had  married  another  woman.  They  both  wer^ 
drunkards.  Their  den,  which  is  in  the  High 
Street — I  know  the  place — contained  one 
bed,  reserved  for  the  father,  his  wife,  and  her 
child.  No  couch  was  kindly  spread  for  this 
poor  child,  and  his  brother,  a  mother's  son — 
then  also  immured  in  the  jail.  When  they 
were  fortunate  enough  to  be  allowed  to  lie  at 
home,  their  only  bed  was  the  hard  bare  floor. 
I  say  fortunate  enough,  because  on  many  a 


136  THE  city: 

winter  night  their  own  father  hounded  them 
out.  Kuffian  that  he  was,  he  drove  his  in- 
fants weeping  from  the  door,  to  break  their 
young  hearts  and  bewail  their  cruel  lot  in  the 
corner  of  some  filthy  stair,  and  sleep  away  the 
cold  dark  hours  as  best  they  could — crouching 
together  for  warmth,  like  two  houseless  dogs. 
A  friend  listened  with  me  to  that  cruel  tale  ; 
and  when  he  saw  the  woe,  the  utter  woe  in 
that  child's  face,  the  trembling  of  his  lip,  the 
great  big  tears  that  came  rolling  from  his  eyes, 
and  fell  on  one's  heart  like  red-hot  drops  of 
iron,  no  wonder  that  he  declared,  with  indig' 
nation  flashing  in  his  eyes,  "  They  have  not  a. 
chance,  sir,  they  have  not  a  chance."  In  cir- 
cumstances as  hopeless,  how  many  are  here — 
in  every  large  city  of  this  kingdom ! 

Yonder  castaway,  who  has  seen  the  ship  go 
down,  with  all  her  shrieking  crew,  and,  float- 
ing away  upon  his  raft,  has  been  borne  along 
by  sea  currents  over  a  shoreless  ocean,  has  got 
a  chance.  These  weeds,  that  are  swung  by 
the  waves  and  give  verdure  to  the  deep,  these 
Bea-shore  birds,  on  which  his  lank  and  hungry 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  IS/ 

dog  stands  ready  to  spring,  indicate  the  neigh- 
borhood of  land ;  and  we  almost  seem  to  S'^e 
it  looming  through  the  fog-bank,  on  which  his 
eye,  kindling  with  hope,  and  shaded  by  his 
hand  from  the  glare  of  the  sun,  is  fixed,  as  he 
bends  forward  with  such  intent  and  eager  gaze  I 
But  to  the  castaway  of  the  land,  however, 
"  hope  is  none."  Kone,  unless  God  in  heaven 
pity  him,  and  fill  our  hearts  with  one  wave 
^m  the  ocean  of  his  infinite  love.  By  the 
depraved  habits  of  their  parents,  by  the  dan- 
gerous associations  of  the  street,  by  their  cold 
and  nakedness,  their  hunger  and  houselessness, 
and  most  of  all,  I  think,  by  the  very  hostility 
bred  within  them  against  a  community  that 
has  only  added  punishment  to  neglect,  and 
"persecuted  them  whom  God  had  smitten," 
they  are  impelled  on  evil.  We  do  nothing  to 
instruct  them.  We  leave  them  exposed  to 
temptations,  before  which  the  best  of  us  would 
go  down.  Thus  we  first  condemn  them  to 
crime,  and  then  condemn  them  to  punishment. 
And  where  is  the  justice  of  that?  I  have 
often  felt,  that  h?d  society  meted  out  to  me 
12* 


13S  THE  city: 

the  measure  which  she  had  meted  out  to 
them,  I  would  have  hated  her,  and  sought 
vengeance  for  my  cruel  wrongs — unless  this 
nature  had  been  changed  and  mellowed  and 
tempered  by  the  grace  of  God.  Thanks  be 
to  God,  the  eyes  of  the  nation — ^long,  too  long 
sealed — are  now  opening  to  its  duty.  We 
hail  the  dawn  of  a  better  day.  The  time  is 
coming,  God  speed  it  on  !  when,  as  they  read 
how  thousands  of  children,  whom  we  left  to 
grow  up  in  ignorance  and  sin,  were  thrown 
into  jail,  were  punished  for  crimes  whicb  their 
parents  trained  and  their  circumstances  forced 
them  to — were  shut  up,  mere  boys  and  girls, 
for  weary  months  of  solitude,  within  the  four 
walls  of  a  cell  which  they  left  stamped  with 
infamy,  and  doomed  to  ruin — a  succeeding 
generation  will  read  the  story  of  our  inhu- 
manity and  injustice  with  feelings  of  aston- 
ishment and  indignation.  There  is  gross 
injustice  in  all  this.  We  visit  the  iniquity 
of  tlie  fathers  upon  the  children.  We  punish 
the  innocent  and  let  the  guilty  go  free.  And 
our  treatment  of  these  poor  suffering  creatures 


irS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  139 

is  calculated  to  excite  feelings  in  every  just 
and  generous  mind,  if  not  as  intense,  yet  akin 
to  the  horror  with  which  we  read,  how  in  the 
days  of  George  II.  they  brought  out  two  in- 
fants, a  boy  of  twelve  and  a  girl  of  eleven 
years  old,  and  strung  them  up  on  the  same 
gallows  before  the  face  of  an  amazed  and 
angry  heaven. 

Meanwhile,  there  are  thousands,  and  tens  of 
thousands,  and  hundreds  of  thousands,  of  the 
children  of  this  land,  who  are  growing  up 
strangers  to  the  benefits  and  blessings  of  edu- 
cation. Ignorance  is  their  sole  inheritance. 
And  in  regard  to  them,  I  may  put  into  the 
mouth  of  our  country  the  very  complaint 
which  the  prophet  puts  into  the  mouth  of  God, 
"  My  people  are  destroyed  for  lack  of  knowl- 
edge." They  are  punished  for  it,  impover- 
ished for  it,  imprisoned  for  it,  banished  for  it, 
and  hanged  for  it.  The  "  voice  heard  in 
Ramah,  lamentation  and  bitter  weeping,"  falls 
upon  our  ear.  Eachel  is  weeping  for  her 
children.  Victims  of  parental  cruelty,  I  call 
on  humanity  to  bless  them  wi+h  the  protection 


140  THE  city: 

which  she  exteuds  in  this  country  to  thd  lower 
animals.  Subjects  in  time  past  only  of  pun- 
ishment, I  next  call  on  justice  to  sheathe  the 
sword,  and  hft  up  her  shield,  and  throw  it 
over  the  heads  of  these  unhappy  children. 
And  next  I  call  on  religion  to  leave  her  tem- 
ples, and,  like  a  mother  seeking  a  lost  child, 
to  go  forth  to  the  streets,  and  gather  in  these 
infants  for  Jesus'  arms — save  these  gems  for 
a  Saviour's  crown. 

Second,  Let  us  look  at  this  evil  as  it  exists 
among  the  ivorhing  classes. 

The  want  of  education  is  not  confined  tc 
the  lowest  of  the  people.  Many  of  the  chil- 
dren of  our  working  classes  begin  the  business 
of  life  before  they  have  finished  that  of  edu- 
cation, and  not  a  few  of  them  even  before  they 
have  begun  it.  The  condition  of  our  labor 
market  lies  as  a  heavy  curse  upon  the  nation. 
It  is  an  evil  poorly  compensated  by  the 
growth  of  wealth,  and  that  more  general  dif- 
fusion of  the  comforts  of  life  in  which  we 
otherwise  heartily  rejoice.     Unfortunately,  in 


ITS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  141 

fant  labor  is  remunerating  now-a-days  in  the 
way  of  work,  as  it  used  to  be  in  the  way  of 
mendicancy.  In  consequence  of  this,  God's 
providence  and  man's  plans  are  in  collision — 
in  direct  collision.  Heaven  and  earth  are  at 
war.  The  roar  of  machinery  deafens  the  ear 
of  tender  childhood.  The  boy  grows  pale 
upon  the  loom,  and  the  girl  grows  stunted  by 
the  whirling  wheels,  who  should  be  drinking 
in  knowledge  at  its  fountains,  or  rushing  from 
school  to  play  with  the  lambs  upon  the  flow- 
ery sward,  or  chasing  the  butterfly  by  the 
laughing  stream,  or  gathering  health  and 
strength,  beauty  and  symmetry  where  the  bee 
collects  her  honied  stores,  for  working  days 
and  winter-time.  The  click  of  shuttles  and 
deafening  noise  of  the  manufactory  are  in  ears 
that  should  be  filled  with  no  sound  but  the 
shouts  and  laughter  of  play,  the  melody  of 
singing  birds,  or  the  hum  of  the  busy  school. 
The  harmony  of  nature  is  disturbed,  and 
the  effects  of  that  disturbance  on  the  physical, 
moral,  and  religious  condition  of  our  people 
are  lamentable— and  threaten  to  be  more  so. 


142  THE  city: 

Children  are  able  to  support  lefore  thej  have 
sense  to  guide  themselves.  Before  God  has 
fitted  or  ever  intended  them  to  be  so,  thej  are 
independent  of  parental  control.  Hence  do- 
mestic discord,  hence  household  rebellion, 
hence  the  defiance  of  parental  authority.  Too 
early  removed  from  school,  hence  the  spread 
of  ignorance.  Thrown  in  their  very  child- 
hood into  the  company  of  hoary  sin,  hence 
their  morals  are  corrupted.  They  are  initiated 
into  the  mysteries  of  vice  before  they  have 
the  power  to  practise  it.  Without  a  parent's 
hand  to  guide  the  reins,  before  reason  and 
principle  have  bad  time  to  assume  their  legit- 
imate authority,  the  passions  get  it  all  theii 
own  headlong  way.  And  in  the  fate  of  a 
carriage  which  has  none  to  drive,  but  strong 
wild  horses  to  drag  it  on;  or,  in  the  fate  of  a 
bark  which.  Laving  broken  loose  from  her 
moorings,  catches  the  gust  in  her  wide-spread 
sail,  ere  helm  is  hung  or  helmsman  stands  by 
the  wheel — ^in  that  inevitable  crash,  in  that 
shattered  wreck — are  symbolized  the  fiite  of 
many.     Born  in  our  great  centres  of  manu- 


ITS   SINS   Ax\D   SOKHC'WS.  143 

facturi',  sent  to  work  when  they  should  be  sent 
to  school  or  continued  at  it,  and  earning  wages 
sufficient  to  maintain  themselves  before  reason 
is  developed  and  principles  are  confirmed, 
the  J  laugh  at  parental  control,  and  in  seeking 
to  be  their  own  masters  become  the  slaves  of 
their  own  master  passions. 

This  is  neither  time  nor  place  to  show  the 
extent  of  this  evil,  unless  to  say  that,  while 
the  most  extraordinary  errors  may  lurk  under 
general  statistics,  the  public  judging  by  them 
alone,  may  cherish  the  delusion  that  all  m 
right  when  much  is  wrong.  The  actual  truth 
may  be  best  arrived  at  by  selecting  some  par- 
ticular locality,  and  subjecting  it  to  a  close 
and  searching  examination.  We  have  done 
so  in  the  Pleasance— a  district  of  the  city 
where  we  are  about  to  build  a  church,  and 
where,  through  our  missionary  and  his  allies, 
we  have  labored  for  four  years  with  such  re- 
markable success.  There  are  worse,  far  worse 
districts  than  that  in  this  city  There  are 
many  much  worse  in  every  large  city  in  the 
kingdom.     Yet  there,  in  an  area  containing 


144:  THE  CITY: 

two  thousand  of  a  population,  we  found,  when 
we  entered  on  our  labors,  no  fewer  than  two 
hundred  children  growing  up  without  educa- 
tion— who  should  have  been  at  school,  and 
were  not.  Thej  were  not  without  schools,  yet 
with  these  in  the  neighborhood  tbej  were 
without  schooling.  They  had  teachers  within 
reach  of  them  yet  they  were  not  taught.  Now 
this  is  a  very  instructive  fact.  The  plain  and 
very  important  inference  to  be  deduced  from 
that  fact  is  this,  that  while  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  state  to  provide  the  means  of  education, 
it  is  no  less  her  duty  to  see  that  they  are  used. 
In  the  United  States  of  America — a  country 
where,  perhaps,  more  than  in  any  other,  the 
value  of  education  is  thoroughly  understood 
— the  means  of  educating  all  the  people  are 
amply  and  in  many  instances  freely  provided. 
Yet  by  one  of  their  last  reports,  complaints 
appear  to  come  from  every  part  of  the  country, 
that  many  parents  neglect  to  send  their  chil- 
dren to  school.  This  evil  has  begun  to  grow 
in  America,  which  in  our  own  land  has  reach- 
ed so  gigantic   a  size.     Years  of  experience 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS  145 

and  observation,  whicli  were  spent  among  the 
lower  and  lowest  classes  of  the  people,  have 
produced  in  my  mind  the  rooted  conviction 
that,  although  public  or  private  benevolence 
may  plant  schools  in  our  streets,  thick  as  trees 
in  the  forest,  the  evil  never  will  be  cured. 
From  many  a  dark  locality  the  city  will  con- 
tinue to  cry,  "My  people  are  destroyed  for 
lack  of  knowledge,"  unless  the  state  insist  on 
this,  that  every  child  who  should  be,  shall  be 
at  school. 

From  a  system  of  trade  which  offers  up  our 
children  in  sacrifice  to  the  Moloch  of  money, 
and  builds  fortunes  in  many  instances  on  the 
ruins  of  public  morality  and  domestic  happi- 
ness— from  the  cupidity  of  some  parents,  and 
the  culpable  negligence  of  others  —  helpless 
rhildhood  implores  our  protection.  We  laugh 
at  the  Turk  who  builds  hospitals  for  dogs, 
but  leaves  his  fellow-creatures  to  die  uncured 
and  uncared  for.  And  we  forget  that  dogs 
and  horses  enjoy  by  Act  of  Parliament,  a 
protection     from    cruelty    among    ourselves, 

which  is  denied   to  those  whose  bodies  and 
13 


146  THE  city: 

whose  souls  we  leave  savage  parents  to  neg- 
lect and  starve.  I  lay  it  down  as  a  principle, 
which  cannot  be  controverted,  and  which  lies, 
indeed,  at  the  very  foundations  of  society,  that 
no  man  shall  be  allowed  to  rear  his  family,  a 
burden,  and  a  nuisance,  and  a  danger  to  the 
community,  lie  has  no  more  right  to  rear 
wild  men  and  wild  women,  and  let  them  loose 
among  us,  than  to  rear  tigers  and  wolves  and 
send  them  abroad  on  our  streets.  What  four- 
footed  animal  is  so  dangerous  to  the  communi- 
ty, as  that  animal  which  unites  the  uncultivated 
intellect  of  a  man  to  the  uncontrollable  pas- 
sions of  a  beast  ? 

We  have  a  right  to  insist  that  this  shall  not 
be.  Some  rights  I  may  waive.  I  may  waive 
my  right  to  a  fortune.  I  may  waive  my  right 
to  the  honors  and  emoluments  of  my  office. 
I  may  abandon  my  claim  to  a  competent  liv- 
>ng  from  those  to  whom  I  minister,  and  turn 
tent-maker  like  the  great  apostle.  But  if  I 
have  a  right  to  interfere  for  the  good  of  others, 
to  shield  the  oppressed,  to  save  the  perishing, 
to  instruct  the  ignorant — by  any  act  on  my 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  147 

part  to  benefit  and  bless  my  country — tliat  is 
a  right  which  I  have  no  right  to  waive.  God 
requires  me  to  claim  it  and  carry  it  into  effect. 
Religion  thus  lends  her  holy  sanction  to  the 
state,  when  she  insists  on  a  universal  educa- 
tion. She  commands  society  to  take  these 
children  under  its  protection,  and  see  to  it, 
that  all  of  them  are  trained  through  means  of 
the  school  to  be  of  service  to  the  state.  The 
parent  who  does  not  educate  his  children, 
should  be  regarded  as  a  man  who  is  not  using 
his  liberty,  but  is  guilty  of  licentiousness. 
When  will  men  cease  to  confound  the  two, 
and  cease  by  applying  the  name  of  liberty  to 
that  which  outrages  the  rights  and  destroys 
the  liberties  of  others,  to  remind  us  of  the  say- 
ing of  the  celebrated  woman  who,  when  they 
were  carting  her  to  the  guillotine,  as  the  tum- 
bril passed  a  statue  that  had  been  erected  to 
Liberty  rose  to  exclaim  : — "  0  Liberty,  what 
crimes  have  been  committed  in  thy  name  I" 

To  ally  that  sacred  name  to  the  culpable 
and  cruel  neglect  of  parents  who  neither  do 
their  duty  to  their  children  nor  to  the  state,  is 


148  THE  city: 

to  help  the  cause  of  despotism,  and  make  the 
name  of  liberty  "  stink  in  the  nostrils"  of  the 
people.  Let  our  country  apply  a  prompt 
remedy  to  this  evil,  and  upon  the  land  which, 
with  judgment  to  distinguish  between  liberty 
and  licentiousness,  and  humanity  to  espouse 
the  cause  of  the  wronged,  spread  her  mother 
wings  over  the  least  of  these  little  ones,  we 
may  expect  the  blessing  of  Him  who  folded 
infants  in  the  arms  that  sustain  the  world,  and 
said,  "  Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me, 
for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

TV,  The  extent  of  irreligion  in  our  large 
cities. 

Much  irreligion  may  be  found  among  relig- 
ious professors.  To  use  a  common  saying,  all 
is  not  gold  that  glitters.  And  there  needs  no 
other  evidence  of  the  fact,  that  irreligion  does 
exist  among  religious  professors,  than  the 
cold,  callous,  heartless  indifference  with  which 
many  hear  of  the  sins  and  look  upon  the  sor- 
rows of  their  fellow-creatures.  They  could 
not  do  so  if  they  were  baptized  into  the  nature 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  149 

as  well  as  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  In  some 
cases  the  loss  of  a  cattle-beast  will  affect  the 
former,  the  loss  of  a  few  pounds  on  some  spec- 
ulation will  distress  the  merchant,  the  loss  of 
her  raven  locks,  and  the  rose  upon  her  cheek, 
and  the  fading  charms  that  won  admiration, 
will  grieve  the  woman,  more  than  the  loss  of 
immortal  souls.  Alas,  the  best  of  us  have 
cause  to  pray  for  a  deeper  baptism  in  the 
spirit  of  Him,  who,  beholding  the  cit}^,  wept 
over  it !  Blessed  Jesus !  blessed  Saviour,  and 
blessed  pattern !  how  didst  thou  leave  the  de- 
lights of  heaven  and  thy  Father's  bosom,  on  a 
mission  of  most  generous  mercy !  Thy  love 
grudged  no  labor!  Thine  eye  refused  no 
pity  !  Thy  ear  was  never  shut  against  the 
story  of  distress !  Tliy  band  was  always  ready 
to  relieve  the  sufferer !  From  thy  cradle  to 
thy  grave,  thy  whole  life  was  passed  in  daily 
acts  of  loftiest  self-denial,  and,  with  the  blood 
trickling  down  thy  brows,  and  the  heavy  cross 
on  thy  lacerated  back,  upon  thy  way  to  Cal- 
vary, to  save  the  vilest  wretches  and  the  chief 
of  sinners,  how  dost  thou  turn  round  on  us  to 
13* 


150  THE   CITY: 

say,  "If  an  J  man  will  come  after  me,  let  Lim 
den;y  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  daily  and 
follow  me!  For  whosoever  will  save  his  life, 
shall  lose  it,  and  whosoever  will  lose  his  life 
for  my  sake  shall  find  it.  For  what  is  a  man 
profited  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world  and 
lose  his  own  soul  ?  or,  what  shall  a  man  give 
in  exchange  for  his  soul?  For  the  Son  of 
man  shall  come  in  the  glory  of  his  Father, 
with  his  angels,  and  then  he  shall  reward 
every  man  according  to  his  works." 

The  best  of  us  have  come  far  short,  no 
doubt,  of  thus  following  Christ.  Defects  are 
many  and  great — ^leaving  us  no  hope  of  salva- 
tion, but  in  the  mercy  of  the  Father,  and  the 
merits  of  the  Son.  Nor  do  we  deny  that 
there  is  a  numerous  class  who  follow  the 
banner  of  the  cross,  but  are,  so  to  speak, 
mere  camp  followers — never  fighting  in  the 
front  of  battle,  nor  found,  but  on  a  day  of 
parade,  among  the  ranks  of  the  fighting  men. 
They  are  professors  of  religion,  because  it  is 
r(^,pu table  and  respectable  to  be  so  ;  because  it 
keeps  qcet  an  otherwise  uneasy  conscience: 


ITS  SINS  ANE   SORKOWS.  151 

because  it  helps  tliem  on  in  the  world.  They 
hold  some  such  place  in  the  Christian,  as  was 
occupied  in  the  Jewish  host,  by  the  mixed 
multitude  which,  although  not  of  Israel,  fol- 
lowed Israel  out  of  Egypt.  But  if  that  be 
certain,  no  less  certain  is  this,  that  while  in 
some  cases  there  is  a  profession  of  religion 
without  its  reality,  there  is  in  no  case  the 
reality  of  religion  without  its  profession. 
There  may  be  leaves  and  blossoms  also  on  a 
tree  which  bears  no  fruit,  but  without  leaves 
and  blossoms  there  can  be  none.  The  tree 
which,  in  high  mid-summer,  when  skies  are 
warm,  and  birds  are  singing,  and  flowers  are 
blooming,  and  woods  are  green,  stands  there  a 
skeleton  form  with  its  naked  branches,  has 
no  life  in  it.  It  must  be  a  cumberer  of  the 
ground. 

Now,  bearing  this  in  mind,  what  an  appal» 
ling  picture  of  irreligion  do  our  large  towns 
present !  Many  years  ago  it  was  alleged  that 
in  our  own  city,  containing  a  population  of 
more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
Bouls,  there  were  not  fewer  than  forty  thou- 


152  THE   CITY: 

sand  who  had  sunk  into  practical  heathenism 
Thej-  ke}->t  no  Sabbath,  they  entered  no  house 
of  God;  bells  might  have  been  mute,  pulpits 
silent,  and  churches  shut  for  them.  So  far  as 
they  cared,  or  were  concerned,  the  cross,  with 
its  blessed  burden,  might  never  have  stood  on 
Calvary.  Just  think  of  us,  sitting  at  ease  in 
Zion,  with  forty  thousand  neighbors  perishing 
at  our  door — ^but  one  here,  and  another  there, 
caring  for  their  souls !  Those  who  alleged 
this,  those  who  had  gone  below  to  sound  the 
well,  and  came  up  to  report  how  the  water 
was  rising,  were  treated  as  alarmists.  Th(^ 
sky  was  clear,  the  sea  was  calm,  the  ship  wasi 
but  slowly  sinking,  and  so — all  fears  laughed 
away — the  merry  music  struck  up  again,  and 
the  dance  went  on  upon  the  deck.  But  since 
that  period,  another  party  has  stept  in — one 
not  suspected  of  fanaticism  or  a  sectarian  spirit. 
The  Government  instituted  a  census,  and  its 
results  have  established  the  ability,  and  vindi- 
cated the  integrity  of  those  who  were  the  first 
to  sound  the  alarm.  It  is  now  proved,  that 
not  here  only   where  between  forty  and  fifty 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  153 

thousand  go  to  no  churcli — not  in  Glasgow 
only,  where  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  go 
to  no  chnrch — not  in  London  only,  where 
more  than  ten  hundred  thousand  go  to  no 
chui'ch  ;  but  that  in  all  our  large  towns  there 
are  to  be  found  immense,  formidable,  and 
growing  masses  over  whom  religion  has  no 
hold — who  have  parted  from  their  anchors, 
and  broken  loose  from  all  religious  profession. 
Nor  is  that  all.  The  plague  has  extended 
from  the  towns  to  the  country.  Many  rural 
districts,  which,  some  years  ago,  w^ere  the 
homes  of  a  devout  and  decent  peasantry,  are 
now  filled  with  a  mining  or  manufacturing 
population,  who  know  no  Sabbath,  read  no 
Bible,  and  care  neither  for  Grod  nor  man. 

But  instead  of  roaming  over  either  the 
whole  town  or  country,  look  again  at .  that 
district  of  this  city  which  we  have  begun  to 
cultivate.  In  what  state  did  we  find  its  peo- 
ple, so  far  as  attendance  on  divine  worship 
was  concerned?  Well,  upon  entering  on 
our  work  in  the  Pleasance — certainly,  as  1 
have   already  said,  not  the  worst  district  of 


164  Tj3E  city: 

the  town — we  found  more  than  one-third  of  its 
two  thousand  inhabitants,  more  than  six  hun- 
dred of  the  whole  two  thousand  people,  pass- 
ing on  to  the  grave  as  careless  of  their  souls  as 
if  tliey  had  none  to  care  for — ^living  without 
the  profession  of  religion — living  without  God 
or  hope  in  the  world — living,  to  all  practical 
intents  and  purposes,  heathens  in  a  Christian 
land. 

We,  like  other  congregations  of  our  own 
church  and  of  other  churches  which  have 
labored  in  the  same  work,  have  had  already 
fruit  of  our  labors.  Let  all  other  congrega- 
tions, to  whatever  denomination  of  Christiana 
they  may  belong,  engage  in  a  similar  enter- 
prise. Let  each  select  their  own  manageable 
field  of  Christian  work.  Let  us  thus  embrace 
the  whole  city,  and  cover  its  nakedness — 
although  like  Joseph,  it  should  be  robed  in  a 
coat  of  many  colors.  Let  our  only  rivalry  be 
the  holy  one  of  who  shall  do  mostand  succeed 
best  in  converting  the  wilderness  into  an  Eden, 
and  causing  these  deserts  to  blossom  as  the  rose. 
Like  those  allies  on  Crimean  fields  who  forgot 


ITS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  155 

their  old  quarrels,  and  buried  the  recollections 
of  the  past  in  oblivion,  let  us  all  sit  down  to- 
gether before  this  great  fortress.     They   co- 
operated  for  the  common   good.     Rebuking 
our   wretched  jealousies,    and  presenting   us 
with  a  heroic,  I  bad  almost  said  a  holy  ex- 
ample of  generous  sympathy  and  indomitable 
energy,  in  tbe  teeth  of  frost,  and  famine,  and 
pestilence,  and  war,  they  clung  to  the  rocks 
of  that  stormy  shore.     With  mutual  under- 
standing  and   arrangements,  they   threw   up 
their  batteries,  they  pressed  on  their  lines,  they 
manned  the  trenches,  they  rushed  to  the  as- 
sault— mingling  the  shouts  of  different  nations 
in  the  same  gallant  charge,  and  the  blood  of 
different  races  in  the  same  battle-field.     And 
if  nations,  once  hostile,  there  fought  and  fell 
together,  there  bled  and  died  together,  wby 
sbould  not  different  churches  come  to  as  com- 
mon  and   cordial   an  understanding.     If  we 
make  a  united,  I  believe,  with  God's  blessing, 
we   shall   make   an   irresistible   assault  upon 
these  four  formidable  strongholds  of  Sin  and 
Satan. 


156  THE   CITY: 

Let  what  we  have  done  on  a  small  scale  in 
our  selected  district  be  done  on  a  large  one. 
We  have  brought  the  uneducated  within  the 
doors  of  the  school.  We  have  built  up  a 
Christian  congregation  out  of  a  mass  of  ruins. 
We  have  gathered  into  the  house  of  God 
many  who  were  as  sheep  without  a  shepherd. 
We  have  done  this  by  a  devoted  missionary 
— aided  by  Christian  men  and  women  who 
threw  their  energies  into  the  work,  and  spent 
no  small  portion  of  their  time  among  the 
dwellings  of  the  people  in  household  visita- 
tions. Let  that  which  we  have  done  on  a 
small  scale  be  done  on  a  large  one,  and  the 
lowest  population  of  our  cities  may  yet  be 
raised,  and  the  worst  districts  evangelized. 
This  were  done  if  every  Christian  family 
would  select  but  one  lost  family  as  the  ob- 
ject of  their  care,  saying,  Be  that  our  work. 
It  were  done,  if  every  convert  would  seek  to 
make  conversions;  done,  if  every  man  who 
had  himself  reached  the  rock,  would  stretch 
out  his  hand  to  pull  others  up.  The  work 
before  us — the  work  of  raising  and  christian- 


ITS  SINS   AND   SORROWS.  157 

izing  our  masses — would  be  found,  I  believe, 
to  be  perfectly  practicable,  were  it  attempted 
in  a  systematic  way,  and  on  some  such  plan 
as  this.  Let  the  ministers  or  representatives 
of  the  different  denominations  within  the  city 
— Episcopalian,  Baptist,  and  Independent, 
United  Presbyterian,  Free  Church,  and  Estab- 
lished Church — meet,  and  form  themselves 
into  a  real  working  Evangelical  Alliance. 
Agreeing  to  regard  all  old  divisions  of  parishes 
with  an  ecclesiastical  right  over  their  inhabit- 
ants as  now-a-days  a  nullity,  and  so  far  as 
these  are  preventing  Christian  co-operation, 
and  the  salvation  of  the  people,  as  worse  than 
a  nullity,  let  them  map  out  the  dark  and  desti 
tute  districts  of  the  city — assigning  a  district. 
to  each  congregation.  Let  every  congregation 
then  go  to  work  upon  their  own  part  of  tbe 
field,  and  giving  each  some  500  souls  to  care 
for,  you  would  thus  cover  "the  nakedness  of 
the  land."  You  would  everywhere  bring  life 
into  close  contact  with  death,  and  cover  the 
whole  as  the  prophet  with  his  own  body  did 
the  dead  body  of  the  child.  Every  church - 
14 


158  THE  CITY! 

going  family  would  have  to  charge  itself  with 
the  care  of  one  single  family,  with  seeing  that 
the  children  of  that  careless,  godless  household 
were  got  to  school,  and  its  members  were 
brought  out  Dn  the  Lord's  day  to  the  church 
of  the  district,  or  their  own  place  of  worship, 
with  visiting  them  in  their  sickness,  and  help- 
ing them  over  their  difficulties,  and  by  aL 
Christian  kindness  promoting  both  their  tem- 
poral and  eternal  interests.  In  this  way  the 
work  were  not  only  practicable,  but  amid  all 
its  difficulties  comparatively  easy.  It  would 
prove  a  blessing  to  the  families  visiting  as 
well  as  to  the  families  visited.  And  I  am 
confident  that  it  would  bring  down  the  bless- 
ing of  God  on  itself,  and  on  our  country — in 
a  few  years  presenting  a  result  which  would 
astonish  earth  and  gladden  heaven. 

I  have  no  hope  of  accomplishing  this  object 
if  the  churches  are  to  be  laced  up  by  their  old 
rules,  and  people  are  to  leave  everything  to 
ministers  and  missionaries.  Why  should  not 
he  that  heareth,  as  well  as  he  that  preacheth, 
say,  Come  ?     W  by  should  not  they  that  are 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORRO"W&.  159 

preached  to,  preach  ?  Our  Lord  gave  to  the 
disciples.  Yes ;  but  they  gave  to  the  people. 
And  why  should  not  some  who  now,  on  Sab- 
bath-days, enjoy  two  services  in  the  house  of 
God,  content  themselves  with  one,  and  at  the 
time  of  the  other  go  forth  to  give  what  they 
have  got?  The  bread  would  multiply  in 
their  hands.  People  may  tell  me  they  are  not 
learned — I  reply,  that  to  tell  these  poor  sin- 
ners of  Jesus,  whether  beneath  the  roof  of  a 
house  or  the  open  roof  of  heaven,  needs  no 
learning.  Tliey  need  nothing  but  the  love  of 
Christ,  zeal  for  souls,  and  the  use  of  theii 
mother  tongue.  Possessed  of  no  qualificatiouv^ 
but  these ;  endowed  with  the  Spirit,  and  or- 
dained of  Heaven,  see  what  the  first  Christians 
did  !  They  conquered  the  world  !  See  what 
the  first  Methodists  did !  They  changed  the 
face  of  England.  See  what  the  church  in 
Hamburgh  did!  Twenty  years  ago,  five 
Christian  men  met  there  in  a  cobbler's  shop. 
They  also,  when  they  beheld  the  city,  wept  over 
it.  They  resolved  to  form  themselves  into  a 
church — a  missionary  church,  with  Hamburgh 


160  THE  crnr: 

and  its  environs  for  the  field  of  tlieii  labors. 
"What  their  particular  creed  was,  to  v/hat  de- 
nomination of  Protestants  they  belonged,  ] 
am  not  careful  to  inquire.  High  above  the 
regimental  colors  of  that  little  band  floated 
the  royal  banner  of  the  Cross.  They  fought 
for  the  crown  of  Jesus.  They  toiled,  they 
watched,  they  labored  for  the  salvation  of 
souls.  One  article  of  their  creed,  one  term  of 
their  communion,  was  this :  —  That  every 
member  of  that  Christian  church  should  be  a 
working  Christian.  So,  in  the  afternoons  and 
evenings  of  the  Lord's  day,  they  went  forth 
io  work,  to  gather  in  the  loiterers  by  the 
highways  and  the  hedges.  Every  member 
ihey  gained  was  more  than  an  accession  to 
their  numbers — he  was  an  accession  to  their 
power.  And  with  what  results  w^ere  their  la 
bors  attended?  These  should  encourage  all 
other  congregations  and  churches  "  to  go  and 
do  likewise."  That  handful  of  corn  is  now 
waving  in  the  golden  harvests  of  many  fields. 
That  acorn  is  now  shot  up  into  a  mighty  oak 
that  nestles  the  birds  of  heaven  and  braves 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  16l 

the  tempest,  and  throws  a  broad  shadow  on 
the  ground.  The  church  which  was  at  first 
constituted  of  these  five  men,  who  met  in  an 
obscure  and  humble  shop,  has,  in  the  couise 
of  twenty  years,  been  blessed  of  God  to  con- 
vert many  thousand  souls,  and  bring  some 
fifty  thousand  people  under  the  regular  min- 
istrations of  the  gospel. 

See  what  the  Lord  has  wrought  I  In  that 
experiment  and  its  sublime  results,  in  the  rich 
effusion  of  the  Spirit  on  the  labors  of  these 
humble  men  and  women — every  one  working 
in  their  own  sphere,  but  all  at  work — who 
does  not  hear  the  voice  of  Providence  saying, 
as  it  mingles  with  the  songs  of  rejoicing  an- 
gels, "  Go  and  do  likewise."  And  should  any 
Dne  come  to  me  with  the  news  that  such  and 
such  an  office-bearer,  or  member  of  this  con- 
gregation, was  preaching  in  our  streets,  I 
would  repl}^  with  Moses  :  A  young  man  came 
running  to  say,  "  Eldad  and  Medad  do  proph- 
esy in  the  camp,''  and  Joshua,  jealous  for  Lis 
master's  honor,  interposed,  saying,  "My  lord 

Moses  forbid  them."     How  noble  his  answer  I 
14* 


162  THE  city: 

"  Enviest  thou  for  me?  Would  God  tbac  all 
the  Lord's  people  were  prophets,  and  that  the 
Lord  did  put  his  Spirit  upon  them  !" 

Were  such  moral  agencies  established  ovei 
all  our  cities,  and  wrought  with  the  energy  of 
men  who  trust  in  God,  and  are  fired  with  the 
love  of  souls,  were  the  churches  to  do  their 
part  in  the  matter  of  religion,  and  the  state  to 
do  her  part  in  the  m.atter  of  education,  our 
country  might  stand  till  the  day  of  doom. 
Then  it  would  appear,  that  although  Britain 
bears  no  eagle  on  her  banner,  yet  with  her 
foot  upon  the  '^  Rock  of  ages,"  and  her  undaz- 
zled  eye  fixed  on  the  Sun  of  Righteousness, 
in  this  respect  she  belongs  to  the  eagle  tribe, 
that  she  can  moult  her  wings  and  renew  her 
youth.  "  For  what  saith  the  Lord,  Hast  thou 
not  knov/n?  hast  thou  not  heard,  that  the 
everlasting  God,  the  Lord,  the  Creator  of  the 
ends  of  the  earth,  fainteth  not,  neither  is 
weary  ?  There  is  no  searching  of  His  under- 
standing; he  giveth  power  to  the  faint,  and  to 
them  that  have  no  might,  he  increaseth 
strength.     Even  the  youths  shall  faint  and  be 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  163 

weary,  and  the  young  men  shall  utterly  fall ; 
but  they  that  wait  upon  the  Lord  shall  renew 
their  strength  ;  they  shall  mount  up  with 
wings  as  eagles,  they  shall  run  and  not  be 
weary,  they  shall  walk  and  not  faint." 

But  if  this  is  not  to  be  done,  and  nothing 
effectual  is  to  be  done  to  meet  the  evils  that 
afflict  our  country,  what  "  shall  be  the  end 
of  these  things  ?"  Unless  they  are  met,  met 
in  time,  and  before  the  constitution  sinks 
and  loses  all  power  to  rally,  the  end  of  them 
must  be  the  ruin  of  our  land  I  Our  cities, 
especially  our  large  cities,  being  in  this,  as 
they  are  in  every  other  country,  the  great 
centres  of  influence,  if  they  increase  in  igno- 
rance, irreligion,  and  immoral-itj^  during  the 
next  century  as  they  have  done  in  the  past, 
those  who  fear  the  God  of  heaven  and  profess 
the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ  will  find  themselves 
a  weak  minorit}^  We  are  just  now  rapidly 
moving  on  to  such  a  dangerous  crisis.  That 
is  the  rock  toward  which  the  vessel  of  the 
state  is  drifting.     And  when  that  happens,  i; 


164  THE  cirr: 

needs  no  augur  to  tell  "  what  sliall  be  tlie  end 
of  these  things." 

Take  as  types  of  their  class  the  two  largest 
cities  in  England  and  Scotland.  Look  at 
London  and  Glasgow.  He  must  be  blind 
who  sees  nothing  alarming  in  the  moral  aspect 
of  these  commercial  capitals.  There,  igno- 
rance and  irreligion  are  washing  away  the  soil 
from  beneath  the  lowest  courses  of  the  social 
fabric.  Let  that  continue — let  this  undermin- 
ing process  go  on  till  a  convulsion  come,  and 
no  power  on  earth  can  keep  the  pyramid  from 
toppling  over — burying  throne  and  altar,  and 
all  that  stands  above,  in  a  common  ruin.  The 
upper  classes  of  society  should  know — God 
grant  that  the}^  may  not  learn  the  lesson  when 
it  is  too  late  I — ^that  whatever  be  the  distance 
between  them,  no  elevation  separates  their  in- 
terests from  the  lowest  people  ;  that  there  is  a 
God  who  reigneth  upon  earth  ;  and  that,  by  a 
decree  of  Providence,  as  sure  as  those  that 
rule  the  courses  of  tide  or  time,  those  who  ne- 
glect the  interests  of  others  shall  themselves 
suffer  in  the  end.    When  the  body  of  the  peo- 


ITS   SINS  AND   SORROWS.  165 

pie  go  down,  they  shall  not  perish  alone ;  in 
til  em  down  goes  a  mighty  ship,  creating  in  its 
descent  a  tremendous  whirlpool  to  engulph 
the  rank  and  wealth,  the  religion  and  liberties, 
of  our  land.  We  are  most  concerned  for  the 
great  body  c  f  the  people,  because  it  is  in  their 
virtues  and  piety  that  the  power  and  per- 
manence of  kingdoms  lie.  Tbey  form  the 
mass  of  the  social  fabric;  and,  although  it 
will  stand  the  shock,  or  survive  the  decay 
which  destroys  its  lofty  and  more  ornamental 
parts,  let  it  be  destroyed,  and  these  are  buried 
in  the  ruins.  When  the  mass  of  the  people 
cease  to  be  pervaded  with  morality  and  piety 
(look  at  France,  for  instance),  by  a  law  as 
sure  as  that  which,  under  certain  conditions, 
changes  wine  into  vinegar,  the  sweetest  into 
the  sourest  things,  liberty  passes  into  licen- 
tiousness— an  intolerable  evil,  from  which  to 
be  relieved  men  submit  their  necks  to  the 
yoke  of  despotism.  There  is  no  choice  for 
nations  but  the  fear  of  God  or  the  terror  of 
man — the  power  of  the  Bible  or  the  point  of 
the  bayonet 


166  THE  city: 

When  men  die,  corruption  commonly  be- 
gins after  death ;  but  when  nations  die,  it 
always  begins  before  it.  And  as  in  that  man's 
gangrened  extremities  and  swollen  feet,  and 
slow  circulation,  I  see  the  heralds  of  death 
approaching — in  these  godless  masses,  sunk  in 
ignorance,  lost  to  the  profession  of  religion, 
and  even  to  ihe  decent  habits  of  civilized  so- 
ciety, I  see  the  most  alarming  signs  of  a 
nation's  danger — unless  remedies  are  promptly 
applied,  the  unmistakeable  forerunners  of  a 
nation's  death.  Unless  early,  active,  adequate 
measures  are  employed  to  arrest  the  progress 
of  our  social  maladies,  there  remains  for  this 
mighty  empire  no  fate  but  the  grave — that 
grave  which  has  closed  over  all  that  have  gone 
before  it.  AVhere  are  the  Assyrian  and  Egyp- 
tian monarchies?  Where  is  the  Macedonian 
empire?  Where  the  world-wide  power  of 
Kome  ?  Egypt  lies  entombed  amid  the  dust 
of  her  catacombs.  Assyria  is  buried  beneath 
the  mounds  of  Nineveh.  Rome  lives  only  in 
the  pages  of  history,  survives  but  in  the  mem- 
ory of  her  greatness  and  the  majestic  ruins  of 


ITS    SINS   AND   SORROWS.  1()7 

the  "  Eternal  City."  Shall  our  fate  resemble 
theirs  ?  Shall  it  go  to  prove  that  Providence 
has  extended  the  same  law  of  mortality  to 
nations  that  lies  on  men?  That  they  also 
should  struggle  through  the  dangers  of  a  pre- 
carious infancy ;  grow  up  into  the  beauty,  and 
burn  with  the  ardor,  of  youth ;  arrive  at  the 
vigor  of  a  perfect  manhood ;  and  then,  slowly 
sinking,  pass  through  the  blindness  and  decay 
of  old  age,  until  they  drop  into  the  tomb  ? 

Under  God,  it  depends  upon  ourselves 
whether  that  shall  or  shall  not  be  our  fate. 
Matters  are  not  so  far  gone  but  it  may  be 
averted.  A  great  French  general,  who  reached 
the  battlefield  at  sun-down,  found  that  the 
troops  of  his  country  had  been  worsted  in  the 
fight.  Unskilful  arrangements  had  neutral- 
ized Gallic  bravery,  and  offered  the  enemy 
advantages  they  were  not  slow  to  seize.  He 
accosted  the  unfortunate  commander.  Having 
rapidly  learned  how  matters  stood,  he  pulled 
out  his  watch,  turned  bis  eye  on  the  sinking 
sun,  and  said,  ''  There's  time  yet  to  gain  the 
victory."     He  rallied  the  broken  ranks.     He 


168        THE  CITY:    ITS  SINS   AND   SORROWS. 

placed  himself  at  their  head.  And  launching 
^hem,  with  the  arm  of  a  giant  in  war,  upon 
the  columns  of  the  foe,  he  plucked  the  prize 
from  their  hands — won  the  day.  There  is 
time  yet,  also,  to  save  our  country.  There  is 
no  time  to  lose.  To  her  case  perhaps  may  be 
applied  the  words,  which  we  would  leave  as 
a  solemn  warning  to  every  worldly,  careless, 
Christless  man,  "  Behold  now  is  the  accepted 
time  ;  behold  now  is  the  day  of  salvation." 


APPENDIX. 


Yt  t  in  these  different  kingdoms^  Ac. — P.  56. 

In  Paris,  we  saw  two  persons  who  were  drunk,  one  a 
soldier,  tne  other  an  ouvrier ;  we  also  saw  one  soldier 
'Jrunk  in  Brussels,  and  these  three  were  all  we  saw 
drunk  during  a  seven  weeks'  tour  spent  in  various  of  the 
kingdoms,  and  large  as  well  as  small  towns,  of  the  Con- 
tinent. We  never  saw  a  woman  drunk,  either  during 
these  seven  weeks  passed  last  summer  on  the  Continent, 
nor  during  five  months  we  spent  many  years  ago  in 
Paris.  In  none  of  these  Continental  towns,  save  in  the 
Jewish  quarter  in  Frankfort  on  the  Maine,  did  we  see 
anything  like  the  foulness  which  in  their  closes,  courts, 
and  alleys,  disgrace  our  large  cities,  and  is  enough  to 
degrade  their  inhabitants.  Save  in  the  Canton  of  the 
Yalais,  a  very  poor  and  Popish  district  of  Switzerland, 
we  saw  no  rags,  nor  any  such  foul  wretchedness,  as  is 
found  in  the  low  districts  of  aU  our  large  towns.  We 
saw  poverty  sometimes,  but  it  was  decent  poverty ;  and 
the  worst  clad  children  had  none  of  that  air  of  misery 
and  sadness,  worn  by  hundreds  at  home,  who  are  the 
unhappy  offspring  of  debauched  and  brutal  parents. 
Public  amusements  and  social  enjoyments  of  an  innocent 
1$ 


170  APPENDIX, 

kind  are  too  little  encouraged  among  us ;  and  here  the 
upper  classes  of  society  stand  separated  by  too  wide  a 
gulph  from  the  great  mass  of  the  people.  There  peer 
and  peasant,  king  and  subject,  rub  shoulders  with  each 
other  in  the  same  public  gardens,  and  the  humbler  classes 
behave  well  because  they  are  treated  well. 

In  the  charges  of  the  English  Judges. — P.  58. 

Judge  Coleridge:  "There  is  scarcely  a  crime  comes 
before  me  that  is  not,  directly  or  indirectly,  caused  by 
strong  drinks 

Judge  Gurney  :  "  Every  crime  has  its  origin,  more  or 
less,  in  drunhennessy 

Judge  Pattison :  "If  it  were  not  for  this  drinking, 
you  (the  jury)  and  I  would  have  nothing  to  do." 

Judge  AJderson :  "  Drunkenness  is  the  most  fertile 
source  of  crime ;  and  if  it  could  be  removed,  the  assizes 
of  the  country  would  be  rendered  mere  nullities." 

Judge  Wight  man :  "I  find,  in  every  calendar  that 
comes  before  me,  one  unfailing  source,  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, of  most  of  the  crimes  that  are  committed — m- 
temperance.'^ 

Judge  Williams  :  "Experience  has  proved  tha-i almost 
aU  crime  into  which  juries  have  had  to  inquire,  may  be 
traced,  in  one  way  or  other,  to  the  habit  of  drunkenness.'' 

There  is  a  dig  in  England^  <&c. — P.  58. 

During  the  Session  of  1852,  Mr.  Hume,  M.P.,  moved 
for  a  return  of  the  number  of  persons  taken  into  cus- 
tody for  drunkenness  and  disorderly  conduct  in  Great 


APPENDIX.  171 

Altain  and  Ireland  each  year,  from  1841  to  1851.  From 
these  returns  it  was  found,  that  while  in  Liverpool,  with 
a  population  of  400,000,  18,522  persons,  and  in  Glasgow, 
with  a  population  of  360,000, 14,870  persons  were  taken 
into  custody  by  the  police  for  the  above  offence ;  Man- 
chester, with  a  population  of  316,000,  presented  only 
787  cases.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  that  while  in 
Scotland  the  instructions  of  the  police  are  most  stringent, 
in  Manchester  no  notice  is  taken  of  drunkenness  unless 
in  case  of  assault  or  breach  of  the  peace,  and  not  always 
then.  Convinced  from  their  own  experience  that  so 
great  a  discrepancy  as  these  returns  exhibit  arose  from 
these  and  other  circumstances,  rather  than  from  a  real 
prevalence  of  sobriety  among  the  population  of  our  city, 
the  committee  of  the  Manchester  and  Salford  Temper- 
ance Society  determined  to  submit  the  question  of  the 
drinking  habits  of  the  people,  at  least  so  far  as  Sunday  it 
concerned,  to  a  rigid  investigation.  They  resolved  tc 
watch  all  the  houses  in  which  intoxicating  drinks  are 
usually  sold,  and  to  keep  an  exact  record  of  the  number 
of  visits  paid  to  each  during  a  certain  time.  It  would 
be  impossible  to  enumerate  each  separate  district ;  a  few, 
therefore,  must  suffice : — 

St.  Michael's  Ward. — Inhabited  principally  by  the 
operative  class;  a  great  portion  by  thieves,  beggars, 
and  prostitutes.  Angel  Street,  Dych  Street,  Charter 
Street,  Ludgate  Hill,  and  adjoining  streets,  at  two 
o'clock,  on  Sunday,  May  28th,  were  crowded  with  men, 
women,  and  children,  in  rags  and  filth,  some  drinking 
.n  the  streets^  others  gambling ;  in  fact  this  district  can 
only  be  described  as  a  very  liell  upon  earth.  Most  of 
the  men  taking  thig  ward  had  to  be  changed  every  half 


172  APPENDIX, 

aour,  or  hour-  some  were  driven  off  by  mobs,  and 
others  stoned.  Number  of  houses  taken,  162;  visits, 
13,738  men,  7862  women,  2905  children ;  total,  24,505, 
being  43  more  than  an  average  of  151. 

District  bounded  by  Great  Jackson  Street,  Stretford 
Road,  and  Chester  Road. — Several  fights  were  reported, 
at  which  no  police  appeared ;  also  one  house  filled  with 
pigeon  flyera,  who  were  flying  their  birds  the  whole 
afternoon  and  evening  from  the  front  of  the  house; 
another  house  filled  with  dog-fighters,  with  their  dogs, 
during  the  evening.  There  were  one  dog-fight,  and  two 
fights  among  the  men  frequenting  the  house,  at  none 
of  which  any  policemen  interfered.  Number  of  houses, 
96;  visits,  6331  men,  4116  women,  1219  children;  total, 
11,666,  being  an  average  of  127  to  a  house. 

Deansgate  and  Chester  Road,  including  a  beer-house 
on  Victoria  Bridge. — Swan  Inn :  996  men,  590  women, 
146  children ;  total,  1732.  No.  274 :  777  men,  676  wo- 
men, 65  children;  total,  1518.  Farmers'  Arms:  591 
men,  582  women,  28  children ;  total,  1281.  Crown  Inn : 
671  men,  360  women,  69  children;  total,  1100.  The 
Parsonage  Inn,  in  the  Parsonage :  858  men,  81  women, 
6  children ;  total,  945.  The  person  watching  tliis  house 
went  in  at  one  o'clock,  being  half  an  hour  after  it  was 
opened,  and  counted  80  persons  sat  drinking.  Trafford 
Arms,  Victoria  Bridge,  a  singing  room :  549  men,  151 
women,  420  }''ouths;  total  1120;  visitors  consist  prin- 
cipally of  young  people.  Ten  other  houses,  with  from 
400  to  800  each.  Total  number  of  houses  in  Deansgate 
and  Chestei  Road,  58;  visited  by  12,387  men,  6342 
women,  1314  children;  total,  19,845,  being  an  average 
of  347  4  to  a  house. 


APPENDIX. 


178 


The  following  is  a  general  summary.  It  will  be  seen 
that  while  the  proceedings  of  the  committee  extended 
over  ten  Sundays,  yet,  as  no  house  was  taken  twice,  a 
fair  average  of  the  attendance  at  each  has  been  arrived 
at.  The  Committee  are  aware  of  no  particular  cause 
which  could  operate  to  render  the  results  of  one  Sun- 
day's census  different  from  another ;  and  it  would  have 
rendered  observation  much  more  difficult  had  not  due 
caution  and  secresy  been  observed.  The  committee 
have  every  reason  to  believe  in  the  perfect  accuracy  of 
the  fiofures. 


General  Summary  of  Visits  during  Legal  Hours. 


Date. 

Houses. 

Men.     Women'Child'n.l   Total.    |              1 

April  2 

2 

936  1     278       429 

1,643 

"      9 

8 

2,168  [     902 

51 

3,116 

«    16 

36 

9,789  I  5,277 

851 

15,917 

"    23 

57 

7,056 

3,981 

692 

11,729 

"    30 

95 

7,078 

6,378 

935 

14,891 

May    7 

100 

^ 

'     6,699 

4,088 

1,109 

11,896 

"    14 

234 

18,2.39 

9,566 

2,559 

80,864 

"    21 

329 

27,684 

16,322 

6,201 

50,207 

"    ?8 

354 

25,602 

16,299 

6,528 

48,429 

Juno  4 
loUl. 

1 

222 

14,878 

8,518 

4,280 

27,626 

1,437 

120,124 

71,609 

23,585  215,818 

Vaults. 

Public 
house. 

Beer- 

Tola'. 

Aver'ge 

i 

114 

114 

29,568 

17,926 

4,147 

51,641 

453 

1 

127 

...        127 

14,880 

7,947 

2,835 

25,662 

202 

746       -^46 

51,474 

27,512 

11,544 

90.530 

121 

Mixed. 

37 

lii2 

281       4tO 

24,202 

17,726 

5,059 

47,485 

I06f 

Tutal. 

151 

259    1,027    1,437 

120,124 

71,609 

23,585 

215,318 

149i 

Including  5-i  policemen  on  duty,  who  remained  from 
five  minutes  to  half  aa  hour.  Twenty  public  housea 
were  found  closea. 

In  closing  this  b.iwf  .\^port  of  their  labors,  the  com- 
15* 


174  APPENDIX. 

tiiittee  beg  to  express  their  thanks  to  the  various  super- 
intendents and  teachers  of  Sunday-schools,  and  also  to 
the  several  members  of  branch  committees,  vi'ho  assisted 
in  taking  these  statistics.  The  committee  would  earnest- 
ly direct  the  attention  of  every  philanthropist  to  the 
fearful  state  of  demoralization  thus  laid  open ;  they  would 
especially  draw  attention  to  the  vast  number  of  beer- 
houses in  the  city,  1572 ;  to  the  Hass  of  persons  keep- 
ing, as  to  those  who  visit,  these  Dens.  It  is  a  fearful 
fact  that  many  of  them  are  attended,  and  mainly  sup- 
ported, by  mere  youths  of  from  14  to  17  years  of  age. 

With  agencies  for  evil  so  potent  and  subtle — with 
temptations  so  numerous  and  so  widely  spread — and. 
above  all,  with  a  traffic  in  debauchery  and  crime  pro- 
tected and  encouraged  by  law — what  hope  for  the 
triumph  of  pure  rehgion  and  virtue  among  our  debased 
and  sensual  population  ?  Does  not  the  sin  of  Britain 
cry  aloud  for  judgment  ?  How  long  will  Christians  and 
philanthropists  hesitate  ?  How  long  shall  paltry  custom 
shield  from  infamy  and  disgrace  those  who  profit  by  this 
sin  ?  Let  one  earnest,  heartfelt  cry  be  sent  forth,  which, 
heard  amid  the  echo  of  political  and  party  strife,  shall 
tell  our  legislators  that  the  people  of  England  will  no 
longer  groan  under  this  oppressive  burden  of  death ; 
that  they  will  labor  and  pray  until  the  accursed  traffic 
be  swept  from  their  midst  forever ! 

Cause  to  thank  God  for  that  Act  of  Parliament, — 
P.  QQ. 
Acts  of  Parliament  cannot  make  men  sober,  other- 
wise than  by  removing  the  temptations  which  foster 
habits  of  LQ temperance.     Forbes  Mackenzie's  Act,  which 


APPENDIX. 


175 


no  one  can  wonder  at  those  attacking  who  make  their 
fortunes  out  of  the  vices  of  the  people,  has  been  attacked 
by  others  of  whom  better  things  might  have  been  ex- 
pected. The  satisfactory  accounts  of  its  working  which 
came  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  should  long  ago  have 
silenced  its  opponents ;  but  they  contrived,  with  a 
courage  worthy  of  a  better  cause,  to  fight  "  upon  their 
stumps,"  and  continued  to  insist  that  this  has  proved  a 
complete  failure.  It  will  rejoice  every  true  friend  of  the 
people,  and  right-hearted  Christian  man,  to  find  by  the 
following  report  of  Mr.  Linton  how  completely  that  Act 
has  succeeded. 

The  beneficial  effects  of  it  are  very  distinctly  brought 
out  in  the  following  table.  By  that  Act,  which  came 
into  operation  in  1854,  no  intoxicating  liquors  can  be 
sold  for  consumption  on  the  premises,  save  to  "  honajide" 
travellers,  before  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  not 
at  all  between  eleven  o'clock  on  Saturday  night  and 
eight  o'clock  on  Monday  morning.  This  Act,  which 
shuts  up  all  drinking  shops  on  the  Lord's  day,  and  also 
all  inns,  save  to  "  bona  fide''  travellers,  unfortunately 
appUes  only  to  Scotland. 


Nttmbeb  on  Sundays. 


MALES. 

FEMALES. 

BOTH  SEXES.       1 

m 

Total. 

III 

Total. 

III 

TotaU 

S«-r 

s  i 

f^ 

'6^--d 

s^ 

b 

1852 

491 

863 

8.54 

238 

260 

498 

729 

628 

1,352 

ia53 

427 

8R4 

811 

214 

280 

494 

641 

QM: 

1,8(15 

1854 

2s8 

260 

543 

172 

163 

885 

455 

428 

878 

■■    1855 

234 

194 

428 

165 

185 

840 

889 

879 

768 

1856 

275 

165 

440 

161 

168 

329 

486 

838 

769 

176 


AI»PEND1X. 


It  has  been  alleged  by  the  opponents  of  this  Act  (for, 
strange  to  say,  it  has  had  opponents),  that  the  forced 
sobriety  of  the  Sabbath-day  only  led  to  a  greater  excess 
in  drinking  on  the  Saturday  or  Monday.  The  unfound- 
ed nature  of  that  statement  is  demonstrated  by  the  fol- 
lowing table : — 

NuMBEE  ON  Saturdays,  Sundats,  and  Mondays. 


1 

185-2. 

1853.                1854. 

1855. 

1856. 

'  Saturdays.... 

1  Sundays 

Mondays 

1933 
1352 
1169 

1879            1S53 
1305              878 
1236            1164 

1783 

768 

1038 

1744 

769 
852 

Total 

4454 

4420      1      8895 

8589 

8365 

It  has  been  alleged  that  not  less  than  sixty  millions 
of  money. — P.  74. 

That  this  statement  is  not  an  exaggeration,  and  that  it 
is  not  in  fact  30,  but  the  enormous  sum  of  60  milliona 
sterling,  is  spent  year  by  year  in  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land on  intoxicating  liquors,  is  proved  by  the  following 
statistics.  They  are  extracted  from  the  Journal  ot  the 
Statistical  Society  of  London,  which  originally  appe^-red 
in  a  paper  read  by  G.  K.  Porter,  Esq.,  F.R.S.,  before  tha 
British  Association. 

The  quantity  of  spirits  of  home  production  : 

Paid  by  the  consumers  for  British  and  Irish 
spirits  consumed  within  the  kingdom  in  1849,  £17,381,641 

Kum,  ditto 3.428,565 

Brandy,  ditto, 3,2S1,25« 

Beer  of  all  kinds,  exclusive  of  that  brewed  in 
private  fair  lies, 25,383,165 

£49.474,628 


APPENDIX.  177 

Add  to  this  sum  the  value  of  all  the  beer  brewed  in 
private  houses,  and  also  the  money  paid  by  the  con- 
Bumers  for  5,582,385  gallons  of  foreign  wine  used  in  the 
United  Kingdom,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  at 
least  60  millions  of  money  are  annually  spent  by  the 
people  on  what  is,  at  the  best  a  luxury,  in  most  cases  a 
pernicious,  in  all  cases  a  dangerous,  and  in  many  cases  a 
fatal  indulgence. 

It  has  been  stated  that  60,000  lives  are  annually 
lost.—V.  '76. 

In  connection  with  this,  I  may  state  that  the  number 
of  infant  lives  destroyed,  through  the  neglect  and  starv- 
ation which  they  suffer  in  consequence  of  the  drunken 
habits  of  their  parents,  it  is  impossible  to  calculate,  but 
it  must  be  frightful  and  enormous.  Nothing  struck  us 
more,  when  we  were  accustomed  to  visit  the  families  of 
the  wretched  classes,  than  to  find  how  large  a  proportion 
of  the  children  were  cut  off  in  early  age ;  nor,  when  W6i 
saw  the  misery  and  crime  which  hfe  would  have  had  iw 
store  for  them,  could  we  regret  to  learn  that  they  were 
safe  in  the  churchyard. 

The  destruction  of  human  life,  directly  caused  by 
drunkenness,  is  the  subject  of  a  paper  by  F.  Gr.  P.  Nel- 
son, Esq.,  F.L.S.,  a  distinguished  actuary,  read  before 
the  Statistical  Society  of  Sweden. 

He  shows  that  between  the  ages  of  21  and  30  years, 
the  mortality  among  drunkards  is  upwards  of  five  times 
that  of  the  general  community.  He  states  that  if  there 
be  anything  in  the  usages  of  society  calculated  to  de- 
stroy life,  the    nost  powerful  is  certainly  the  inordinate 


178  APPENDIX. 

use  of  strong  drink.  He  produces  tables  whicl:  prove 
that  the  mortality  among  this  class  is  frightfully  high, 
and  unequalled  by  the  result  of  any  other  series  of  ob- 
servations made  in  any  class  of  the  population  of  this 
country  ;  and  adds — "  Sanitary  agitators  have  frequent- 
ly excited  alarm  about  the  wholesale  havoc  in  human 
life  going  on  in  the  badly-conditioned  districts  of  some 
of  our  large  cities ;  but  no  collection  of  facts  ever  brought 
under  attention  has  shown  so  appalling  a  waste  of  life  as 
exhibited  in  the  above  results." 

Referring  to  tables  founded  on  a  broad  basis,  and 
wrought  out  with  the  nicest  accuracy,  he  states : — "  It 
will  thus  be  seen,  that  an  intemperate  person,  of  age  20, 
has  an  equal  chance  of  hving  fifteen  years,  while  a  per- 
son of  the  general  population  of  the  country,  at  the 
same  age,  has  an  equal  chance  of  living  44  years  longer. 
Again,  at  age  30,  the  intemperate  person  has  an  equal 
chance  of  living  13  years,  and  the  other  36  years.  Also, 
at  age  40,  the  chance  of  the  one  is  1 1  years,  and  of  the 
other  28  years." 

The  effect  of  intemperance  upon  different  classes  of 
the  people,  as  given  in  his  tables,  is  full  of  warning, 
and  curious,  although  such  as  we  might  expect.  The 
average  duration  of  life,  after  the  commencement  of  in- 
temperate habits,  is — 

Among  mechanics,  laborers,  and  working  men,    ...  IS  yeara. 

"      traders,  dealers,  and  merchants, IT      " 

"      professional  men,  and  gentlemen, 15      " 

"      females, 14      " 

Let  all  the  kingdom  listen  to  the  weighty  words  of  its 
Prime  Minister.  Lord  Palraerston,  in  addressing  tlie 
laborers,  at  the  annual   meeting  of  the   Laborers'  En- 


APPENDIX.  179 

couragement  Society,  said  : — "  It  is  the  duty  of  all  parenta 
to  see  that  their  children  are  well  and  properly  educated 
—that  they  are  early  instructed,  not  merely  in  book 
learning,  in  reading  and  writing,  and  acquirements  of 
that  kind,  but  instructed  in  the  precepts  which  indicate 
the  difference  between  right  and  wrong,  and  that  they 
are  taught  the  principles  of  religion,  and  their  duty  to- 
wards God  and  man.  Now,  the  way  in  which  that  can 
be  done,  is  by  the  father  and  mother  building  up  their 
household  upon  that  which  is  the  foundation  of  all  excel- 
lence in  social  life — I  mean  a  happy  home  (applause). 
Now,  no  home  can  be  happy  if  the  husband  be  not  a 
kind  and  affectionate  husband,  and  a  good  father  to  his 
children.  Bearing  this  in  mind,  he  must  avoid  two  great 
rocks  on  which  too  many  men  in  the  humbler  rank? 
make  shipwreck — the  tobacco  shop  and  the  beer  shop. 
The  first  ruins  his  health,  and  leads  to  all  kinds  of  disease. 
If  he  were  a  man  living  on  a  desert  island,  and  isolated 
from  society,  this  might  be  a  matter  of  comparatively 
httle  importance,  and  he  might  ruin  his  constitution  just 
as  he  pleased ;  but  the  laboring  classes  must  remember 
that  their  health  and  strength  are  the  support  of  theii 
famihes,  and  if  they  ruin  the  one,  and  recklessly  waste 
the  other,  they  not  only  injure  themselves,  but  do  irre- 
parable damage  to  those  who  are  depending  upon  them. 
So  much  for  the  use  of  tobacco,  which  many,  to  their 
detriment,  indulge  in.  But  the  beer  shop  and  public 
bouse  go  further,  because  the  habits  there  contracted  not 
only  lead  to  the  degradation  of  the  individual  and  the 
Impoverishment  of  his  family,  but  they  lead  to  offences 
and  crimes  which  tend  to  place  the  man  in  the  condition 
of  a  felon  and  a   convict.     No  man  who   indulges    in 


180  APPENDIX. 

drink  can  fail  to  feel  degraded  when  he  recovers  from 
his  intoxication,  and  that  sense  of  degradation  leads  him 
again  to  drown  his  cares  in  renewed  intoxication,  and 
from  step  to  step  he  falls  into  the  lowest  condition  that 
human  nature  can  be  degraded  to." 

/  charge  it  with  the  murder  of  innumerable  souls. — 
P.  105. 

Many  illustrations  of  this  charge  suggest  themselves. 
Let  us  select,  for  example,  the  case  of  Sabbath  school 
scholars.  Look  at  the  fatal  influence  which  drink  has 
been  found  to  exert  in  those  connected  with  Sabbath 
schools,  and  to  what  a  lamentable  and  frightful  extent  it 
has  neutralized  all  their  blessed  influences.  In  a  letter 
which  Mr.  Logan  addressed  to  the  editor  of  the  British 
Banner^  he  states  : — "  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  visit- 
ing prisons,  and  conversing  with  criminals  almost  weekly, 
for  upwards  of  twelve  years.  My  observations  extend 
to  almost  every  large  prison  in  the  United  Kingdom. 
For  the  last  eight  years  I  have  been  trying  to  ascertain 
what  proportion  of  our  prison  population  have  been  con- 
nected with  Sunday  schools.  When  collecting  informa- 
tion from  prisoners,  it  has  ever  been  a  general  rule  with 
me  to  prevent  them,  as  much  as  possible,  from  becoming 
acquainted  with  the  main  object  of  the  visit  I  record 
a  few  facts  which  refer  to  different  parts  of  the  country. 
I  visited  78  of  th6  88  prisoners  who  were  tried  at  the 
Glasgow  assizes,  in  September,  1848.  Seven  of  these 
could  neither  read  nor  write:  of  the  remaining  71  not 
less  than  38  males  and  24  females — total,  62 — had  been 
connected  with  Sabbath  schools.     A  number  of  both 


APPENDIX.  181 

sexes  had  been  in  attendance  at  Sunday  sclools  for 
three,  four,  five,  six,  seven,  nine,  and  even  ten  years. 
To  prevent  anything  like  deception  on  this  point,  I 
cross-questioned  them  as  to  the  locality  of  the  schools, 
the  names  of  the  teachers,  etc.  I  likewise  spent  several 
days  in  calling  on  a  number  of  the  parents  and  relatives, 
in  difierent  parts  of  the  city,  and  the  replies  given  by  these 
parties  to  my  inquiries  fully  corroborated  the  statements 
of  the  convicts  themselves.  Fifty-nine  of  the  sixty-two 
criminals  admitted  that  drinking  and  public-house  com- 
pany had  not  only  been  the  chief  cause  of  their  leaving 
the  Sunday  school,  but  of  violating  the  laws  of  their 
country.  The  number  of  prisoners  who  were  tried  at 
the  Glasgow  assizes  in  March,  1849,  was  27  ;  I  visited 
25  of  them:  20  of  the  23  who  could  read  were  old 
Sunday  scholars,  and  19  acknowledged  that  they  had 
been  injured  by  strong  drink. 

"  The  Governor  of  the  Boys'  House  of  Refuge,  Glas- 
gow, informs  me,  in  a  note  of  the  22d  March,  1849,  that 
of  the  115  juvenile  dehnquents,  7^  had  been  connected 
with  Sabbath  schools.  He  also  states,  that  57  of  the 
children's  fathers,  and  47  mothers— total,  104— were  in- 
temperate ;  and  41  of  the  youths  had  been  in  the  habit 
of  drinking  themselves.  The  matron  of  the  Females' 
House  of  Refuge  states,  November,  28,  1848,  that  of  the 
126  inmates,  including  50  unfortunate  women,  105  had 
been  connected  with  Sabbath  schools!  The  matron 
adds,  that  'intemperance  is  a  most  fruitful  source  of 
juvenile  delinquency,  and  also  of  crime  and  profligacy 
in  those  of  riper  years.' 

"It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remark,  that  these  appal- 
ling facts  are  not  adduced  for  the   purpose  of  imder- 
16 


182  APPENDIX. 

valuing  the  benevolent  efforts  of  Sunday  school  teachers. 
On  the  contrary,  I  feel  deeply  interested  in  their  disin- 
terested labors,  and  have  been  personally  identified  with 
them  for  more  than  twenty  years.  My  great  object  is  to 
convince  the  friends  of  Sunday  schools,  that  the  accursed 
drinking  usages  of  the  present  day  are  annually  robbing 
us  of  thousands  of  young  people  who  were  once  our 
most  hopeful  scholars." 

[Pages  might  be  filled  with  evidence  to  the  same  effect, 
but  let  the  following  statements  by  others  suffice] : — The 
master  of  a  large  day  school  in  the  vicinity  of  London, 
stated,  a  few  years  ago,  that  on  examining  a  roll  con- 
taining the  names  of  one  hundred  pupils,  he  ascertained 
upon  inquiry  that  ninety-one  of  them  had  become  drunk- 
ards. At  Lau7icesion,  a  similar  investigation  took  place 
in  a  well-conducted  Sabbath  school,  and  out  of  one  hun- 
dred boys,  as  their  names  stood  on  the  register,  26  had 
left  the  neighborhood  and  were  unknown,  but  of  the  re- 
maining seventy-four,  forty  had  been  overcome  by  drunk- 
enness ! — Another  says :  "  Of  sixty  scholars  in  a  Sab- 
bath school,  thirty  were  found  to  have  been  ruined 
through  drink."— Another,  the  Eev.  W.  Wight,  B.  A., 
says :  "  Out  of  a  hst  of  eight  Sabbath  school  Teachers, 
ieven  were  found  to  have  been  ruined  through  drink  1" 
Another,  a  minister  at  Ipswich,  says :  "  Out  of  fifteen 
young  men  professing  piety  and  Teachers  in  the  Sab- 
bath school,  nine  were  ruined  through  drink  1" — An- 
other, a  warm  friend  of  Sabbath  schools,  stated  that, 
"  In  a  town  in  Lancashire,  no  fewer  than  four  '  unfortu- 
nate females'  were  seen  together  in  the  street,  every  one 
of  whom  had  been  once  a  Teacher  in  a  Sabbath  school  1" 

"  A  few  montlis  ago  a  member  of  committee  visited 


APPENDIX. 


183 


utie  of  the  singing-saloons  in  Rochdale,  and  on  a  Saturday 
evening,  about  eleven  o'clock,  he  observed  about  sixteen 
boys  and  girls,  seated  at  a  table  in  front  of  the  stage  ; 
several  of  the  lads  had  long  pipes,  each  with  a  glass  or 
jug  containing  intoxicating  Uquor,  and  no  less  than  four- 
teen of  the  number  were  members  of  Bible  classes  in  our 
different  Sunday  schools.  There  they  sat,  hstening  to 
the  most  obscene  songs,  witnessing  scenes  of  the  most 
immoral  kind,  and  spending  the  interval  in  swallowing 
liquid  fire."  It  is  added  :  ■'  These  sinks  of  iniquity  are 
tlironged  with  old  Sunday  scholars,  especially  on  Sabbath 
evenings,  and  not  unfrequently  until  twelve  o'clock." 
Still  further  it  is  said:  "The  appalling  results  of  the 
drinking  system  are  not  wholly  confined  to  the  children 
in  our  schools ;  many  a  promising  teacher  has  fallen  a 

victim." 

The  Rev.  James  Sherman,  minister  of  the  Surrey 
Chapel,  said  :— "  The  question  has  been  asked,  what  be- 
comes 'of  the  senior  scholars  of  these  schools  ?  In  the 
schools  belonging  to  my  own  church  the  number  of 
scholars  is  3000,  with  400  gratuitous  teachers;  but  I  am 
bound  to  say  that  few  of  those  children  become  mem- 
bers of  the  church  after  leaving  the  schools.  Where  do 
they  go  ?  Many  of  them  would  be  found,  as  soon  as 
they  arrived  at  the  age  of  fifteen  or  sixteen,  to  become 
apprentices;  and,  by  the  pernicious  system  which  pre- 
vailed among  the  working  classes  so  situate,  they  grew 
up,  many  of  them  to  be  drunkards,  and  to  be  a  disgrace 
to 'themselves  and  the  neighborhood.  A  teacher  of  a 
class  which  was  called  the  vestry-class,  had  collected  the 
statistics  in  respert  to  that  class,  consisting  o^  forty -six. 
He  was  induced  to  examme  what  were  their  habits  in 


184  APPENDIX. 

regard  to  Temperance  during  the  preceding  seven  years, 
and  the  result  was  —  drunkards,  thirteen ;  occasional 
drunkards,  nine ;  steady  characters,  thirteen  ;  unknown, 
three,"  &c. 

These  are  dreadful  facts.  They  make  a  strong  appeal 
to  the  conscience  of  every  Christian  man.  They  loudly 
call  on  us  to  do  something,  to  do  everything  within  our 
power  by  precept  and  by  example,  by  labors  and  by 
sacrifices  to  put  an  end  to  an  evil  that  in  regard  to  thou- 
sands is  turning  the  blessed  gospel,  churches,  and  Sab- 
bath schools,  to  nought. 

Almost  all  the  crime. — P.  106. 

The  connection  between  crime  and  drunkenness  ia 
strikingly  illustrated  by  the  following  table,  which  ia 
•  extracted  from  Superintendent  Linton's  "  Returns."  It 
appears  from  this  table,  that  nearly  one  half  of  the  crimes 
committed,  40  per  cent,  of  them,  were  committed  by 
parties  when  under  the  influence  of  intoxication.  Add 
to  this  percentage  the  number  of  crimes  committed  by 
those  whom  drink  has  brought  to  poverty — to  want; 
whom  drink  has  driven  to  desperation ;  whom  drink  has 
deprived  of  all  self-respect,  and  all  those  other  moral  in- 
fluences that  keep  men  and  women  from  crime;  and 
include  in  the  reckoning  the  number  of  crimes  commit- 
ted by  those  who  have  been  reared  in  ignorance,  sin,  and 
misery,  solely  and  entirely  in  consequence  of  the  de- 
praved and  dissipated  habits  of  their  parents,  and  no 
man  can  doubt  that  drink,  through  its  direct  or  indirect 
effects,  is  the  pregnant  cause  of  an  overwhelming  pro- 
portion of  the  crimes  of  our  country. 


APPENDIX. 


185 


l?OTIl»»«K    INB    PkRCKNTAQE    OF   PERSONS     APPRKH«NDED    FOB     CRIMES 
Ok    Q>.'r,iSOm,    WUO    WERE   DRUNK   WHEN   TUEY    COMMITTW)  TUEM. 


MALES.              1 

FEMALES.            1 

BOTH  SEXES.         ^ 

l!l 

Id 

1 

i!l 

h 

1 
1 

p  s  s 

h 

< 

*tl 

1^  1 

1 

i 

< 

HI 

1 
< 

Hi 

1852 

4,864  !  1,774 

86    1 

4,496 

1 1,626  '\    36 

9,360  !  3,400 

37 

1853 

4,620  12,914 

48    , 

4,918 

1,989  ;    40 

9,538  14,008 

41    . 

1854 

3,892    1,802 

46 

4,076 

(1,764       43 

7,968    3,566 

44 

1855 

3,-t4S    1,590 

46 

8,711 

1,491  ;    40 

7,159  1 3,081 

43 

1856 

8,240    1,374 

42 

3,719 

1,392      37 

6,959  1 2,766 

39 

How  is  my  assertion  corroborated  by  tlie  following 
statements  ?  They  are  a  voice  from  the  prison.  It  givea 
forth  no  uncertain  sound. 

The  Governor  of  York  Castle  (Jno.  Noble,  Esq.): 
*^  Nineteen  out  of  every  twenty,  who  come  under  my 
care,  come,  directly  or  indirectly,  through  drinking''' 

The  Rev.  John  Beid,  Chaplain  to  the  Prisons  of  Glas- 
gow :  "  You  are  desirous  to  know  the  cause  of  crimt 
in  these  quarters.  One  short  word  embraces  the  burden 
of  the  whole  matter  —  Drink!  Drink!  Of  at  least 
twenty  thousand  prisoners,  including  juveniles,  with 
whom  I  have  conversed  in  private  during  the  last  four 
years,  I  am  certain  that  the  professedly  teetotal  portion 
of  them  have  been  under  the  five  hundredth  part  of  the 
whole." 

James  Backhouse,  Esq.  (the  celebrated  traveller  in 
Africa)  :  "  The  time  of  my  sojourn  in  the  Australian  coU 
onies  was  from  the  beginning  of  1832  to  1838,  and  much 
of  this  time  was  occupied  in  visiting  the  prisoner  popu- 
lation, consisting  of  convicts  from  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland.  In  conversing  with  viany  thousands  of  these 
16* 


180  APPENDIX. 

I  was  surprised  to  find  the  large  proportion  that  had 
fallen  into  crimes  resulting  from  intemperance,  and  who 
referred  to  the  fines  and  footings  of  British  work-shops 
as  i\\e\.v  first  step  in  this  evil  course." 

Twelfth  Report  of  the  Inspectors  of  Prisons :  "  On  the 
question  being  put  to  a  number  of  prisoners  in  Edin- 
burgh gaol,  under  twenty  years  of  age — '  What  do  you 
assign  as  the  first  cause  of  your  falhng  into  error?' 
'  Drink'  is  almost  the  invariable  answer." 

Kev.  George  Ilishp,  Chaplain  to  prison  oi'  Edinburgh  : 
"  I  am  unable  to  mark  out,  with  arithmetical  precision, 
the  place  among  the  causes  of  crime  which  must  be 
assigned  to  this  habit  (intemperance)  ;  but  I  have  no 
hesitation  in  expressing  the  opinion  that  it  is  one  of  the 
most  active,  and,  at  present,  the  most  prevalent  of  second- 
ary causes." 

Rev.  E.  Meeres,  Chaplain  of  Rochester  gaol :  "  I  have 
no  hesitation  in  saying  that  a  very  large  proportion,  pos- 
sibly nineteen  out  of  every  twenty,  are  imprisoned 
through  the  effects  of  drunkenness.'' 

Rev.  W.  Brown,  General  Prison,  Perth :  "  Our  prison- 
ers in  general  are,  directly  or  indirectly,  the  victims  of 
intemperance.'' 

Rev.  Geo.  M'Lear,  Chaplain,  Bedford  gaol :  "  My  ex- 
perience of  eighteen  years  justifies  the  conclusion  that 
ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred  owe  their  imprison- 
ment, directly  or  indirectly,  to  intemperance." — "New 
prisons  and  new  regulations  will,  humanly  speaking,  oe 
of  little  benefit,  so  long  as  intemperance  prevails  to  the 
extent  it  now  does." 


APPENDIX. 


187 


The  legislature  may  render  essential  service. — P.  107. 

The  combined  influence  of  legislative  enactments,  of 
the  reduction  of  public  houses,  of  total  abstinence  pnu- 
ciples,  and  of  that  elevation  of  public  feeling  and  m(3r- 
als,  vrhich  is  mainly  to  be  attributed  to  the  attention 
which  temperance  si~>cieties  have  turned  to  the  subject 
of  drunkenness,  and  to  the  Ught  which  they  have 
thrown  upon  the  extent  and  evils  of  this  vice,  appears 
m  the  improved  habits  of  the  people,  as  very  strikingly 
brought  out  in  the  following  tables.  They  demonstrate 
that  sobriety  is  on  the  increase,  and  drunkenness  on  the 
wane.  These  tables  are  extracted  from  ''  Returns  as  to 
Crimes,  Offences,  and  Contraventions,  and  to  cases  of 
Drunkenness,"  prepared  for  the  Magistrates  and  Council 
by  Mr.  Linton,  Superintendent  of  Police. 


Number  of  Persons  fouxd  Drunk  in  the  Streets,  and  kept  in 
THE  Police  Office  and  Station- Houses  till  thet  were  Sober, 
AND  Number  who  were  Drunk  when  apprehended  for  Crimss 
AND  Offences. 

Total  Number  taken  Charge  ofby  the  Police. 


MALES. 

FEMALES. 

BOTH  SEXES.        1 

%U 

m 

m 

-.r^ 

112 

2  =  S 

Total. 

ite 

III 

io..., 

i9f 

^%% 

Total. 

\ 

5  °=-.= 

■'%. 

1  s  ==- 

'  fa 

'-1 

fei 

■'^^ 

1852 

3,903 

1,774 

5,677 

2,46 1  1 1,626    4,090 

6.367  13,400 

9,767 

1853 

3,4(50 

2.014 

5.474 

2.267  '1,989    4.256 

5,727  14.003 

9,730 

1*54 

3.126 

1.S02 

4,92S 

2,057  ,1,764    3,s21 

5,1S3  i  3,566  1  8,749 

1855 

2,993 

1.590 

4,583 

'2,021     1,491  13,512 

5,014  '3,081    8,095 

j    1856 

2,847 

1,374 

4,221 

12,123    1,392  1 3,515 

4,970  1 2,766    7,786 

It  were  much  to  be  de?ired   that  this  country,  which 
in  the  last  and  ib  the  beginning  of  the  preser^t  century 


188  APPENDIX. 

devoted  more  than  twenty  years,  all  its  energies,  and 
many  hundred  millions  of  money  to  wars  that  have  not 
prevented  a  Bonaparte  from  occupying  the  throne  of 
France,  and  which  I  may  say  devoted  other  twenty 
years  to  fighting  the  battles  of  political  reform,  would 
now  (Providence  permitting)  devote  at  least  twenty 
years,  and  all  the  millions  that  might  be  needed  for 
such  a  purpose,  to  the  grand  object  of  social  reforms — 
such  as  sanitary  improvements,  the  universal  education 
of  the  people,  promotion  of  temperance,  and,  through 
many  other  means,  the  comforts  and  elevation  of  the 
working  classes,  and  the  elevation  especially  of  the 
sunken  classes  of  society. 

In  reference  to  the  great  social  evil  of  intemperance,  a 
beginning  has  been  made — something  has  been  done — 
but  much  yet  remains  to  be  done,  much — and  that  the 
better  part  also — which  the  legislators  cannot  do.  Our 
main  hope  lies  in  raising  the  tone  of  public  feehng  and 
opinion,  and  that  by  means  of  the  intellectual,  moral, 
and  religious  elevation  of  the  people.  We  would,  how- 
ever, venture  to  suggest,  for  the  consideration  of  our 
legislators,  the  following  measures.  They  would  do 
much  to  remove  temptation  out  of  the  way  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  check  the  growth  and  progress  of  intemper- 
ance : — 

1.  Until  public-houses,  opened  for  the  mere  purpose 
of  drinking,  are  declared  illegal,  because  carrying  on  a 
traffic  pernicious  to  the  interests  of  the  community,  a 
law  should  be  passed,  requiring  these  to  be  closed  at  an 
early  hour  in  the  evening,  as  they  are  now  by  law  kept 
shut  to  a  late  hour  in  the  morning.  The  keeping  of  them 
shut  till  eight  in  the  morning  has  preserved  many  a  poor 


APPENDIX. 


189 


man  froir  temptation  when  on  the  road  to  his  work— 
the  closing  of  them  at  six  o'clock  at  night  would  do  still 
more  good,  by  preserving  many  a  working  man  from 
temptation  when  his  day's  work  was  over.  They  should 
be  made  to  resemble  the  ash-tree,  which  is  the  last  to 
open  up  its  leaves,  and  one  of  the  first  to  close  them. 

2.  All  places  opened  for  the  mere  purpose  of  drinking 
intoxicating  liquors  should  be  declared  illegal,  as  in  most 
cases  the  ruin  of  the  poor  and  a  curse  to  the  community. 
If  some  will  drink,  they  have  wife  and  children,  broth- 
ers and  sisters,  at  home,  to  prevent  thek  drinking  to  ex- 
cess, or  becoming  slaves  to  the  habit.  The  interest  of 
the  dram-seller,  on  the  other  hand,  lies  in  inducing  them 
to  become  frequent  and  regular  customers  of  his  shop. 
The  more  they  drink,  and  the  deeper  they  drink,  the 
worse  for  their  families,  but  the  better  for  him. 

3.  The  law  should  regard  every  man  or  woman,  who 
can  be  proved  before  a  jury  or  any  other  proper  author- 
ity, to' be  in  habit  and  repute  a  drunkard,  as  a  lunatic, 
and  deal  with  them  accordingly.  The  prospect  of  a 
shaven  head,  a  strait  jacket  (if  needful),  the  high  walls 
of  an  asylum,  and  the  society  of  the  insane,  would  strike 
men  with  salutary  terror.  Months  of  sobriety  would,  in 
many  instances,  so  restore  the  brain  and  body  to  health, 
that  the  person  would  acquire  the  power  of  resisting 
temptation,  and  come  out  to  drink  no  more — the  slave 
would  acquire  freedom  in  the  house  of  bondage.  That 
should  be  done  according  to  law  which  is  done  without 
law;  for  it  is  well  known  that,  within  the  House  of 
Refoge  here,  and  in  other  places  elsewhere,  hundreds  of 
poor  drunkards  are  shut  up.  Some  go  to  be  cured  by 
entire  removal  fron    -emptation,  some  consent  to  go  dur- 


190  APPENDIX. 

ing  a  fit  of  temporary  penitence,  when  under  u.e  remorse 
of  delirium  tremens;  but,  however  they  go,  fortunately 
for  their  famiUes,  society,  and  themselves,  they  find  it 
easier  to  get  in  than  get  out^  I  have  known  many  pa- 
rents disgraced  and  tormented  by  a  drunken  son,  many 
wives  maltreated  by  drunken  husbands,  whose  cruelty 
they  had  not  only  to  bear,  but  whom  their  industry  had 
to  support,  and  not  a  few  husbands  whose  life  was  em- 
bittered, and  whose  property  was  wasted,  and  whose 
children  were  neglected  and  ruined,  through  the  dissi- 
pated habits  of  the  mother  of  the  house.  To  all  these, 
what  a  relief  would  such  a  law  as  I  suggest  bring  ?  J 
know  a  man  in  a  respectable  position  in  this  town,  who, 
to  prevent  his  wife  selhng  his  silver  spoons  and  pawning 
his  clothes  and  furniture,  made  her  a  regular  allowance 
of  two  bottles  of  whisky  per  day — and  she  drank  them. 
In  all  such  cases  the  law  ought  to  give  reUef  in  justice 
to  a  good  as  against  an  evil  doer.  It  is  strange  to  seo 
how  society  stands  by  and  allows  so  many  to  waste 
their  life,  their  wages,  their  substance  on  drink,  ^nd 
thereby  throw  the  burden  of  maintaining  their  families 
on  the  sober  and  industrious  part  of  the  community. 
Virtue  with  us  is  taxed  to  support  vice. 

4.  As  the  drunkard  is  held  responsible  for  all  that  he 
does  in  a  state  oC  drunkenness,  the  law  should  declare 
that  the  keeper  oi"  the  drinkmg-shop  within  which  he 
got  drunk  shall  share  in  his  responsibility.  No  man  can 
have  a  right,  for  the  sake  of  money,  to  convert  another 
man  into  a  madman,  and,  having  turned  him  out  on  so- 
ciety, to  say,  of  whatever  ofFen(ie  in  his  madness  he 
commits,  "  my  hands  are  clean." 

5,  The  drunkard  who  deprives  himself  of  reason,  and 


APPENDIX.  191 

thereby  make3  himself  capable  of  committing  any  crime 
should,  in  all  cases,  be  regarded  as  a  subject  of  punish- 
ment ;  and  the  keeper  of  the  drinking-shop,  who  sup- 
plied him,  should  be  punished  as  equally  guilty  with 
himself — in  many  instances  as  more  so. 

6.  Our  legislators  should  contrive  some  means  at  law 
whereby  those  who  create  the  poverty  of  the  country 
should  be  made  upon  their  own  shoulders  to  carry  the 
burden  of  it.  For  illustration's  sake,  take  this  case :— - 
I  knew  a  man  who  left  a  public-house  drunk  on  a  Sat- 
urday night,  and  on  Sabbath  morning  was  found  smashed, 
stiff  and  dead,  at  the  foot  of  a  crag,  by  the  side  of  which 
his  path  homewards  lay.  The  burden  of  supporting 
that  man's  family  ought  to  have  been  laid,  not  upon  the 
public,  but  upon  the  publican;  and  the  principles  of  such 
a  law  should  be  carried  out  to  its  fullest  possible  extent. 

Some  plead  for  better  lodyings  and  sanitary 
measures. — P.  108. 

The  urgent  necessity  of  these  in  Edinburgh  is  power- 
fully brought  out  in  a  letter  addressed  to  the  Lord  Provost 
and  Magistrates,  by  Henry  Johnston,  Esq.,  H.E.I.C.S., 
and  in  a  pamphlet  which  that  gentleman  has  published 
on  the  state  of  our  closes  and  by-streets.  He  exposes 
to  those  whc  never  turn  a  foot  in  the  way  of  these 
abodes  of  foul  wretchedness  and  misery  a  state  of  mat- 
ters ruinous  to  the  public  health,  pernicious  to  public, 
morals,  and  a  disgrace  to  our  capital  and  its  inhabitants. 
Dr.  G-eorge  Bell  published  some  years  ago  an  account 
of  the  houses   and  iihabitants  of  Blackfriars'  Wynd 


192  APPENDIX. 

which  presents  a  most  doleful  view  Df  the  sin.  nisery 
wretchedness,  and  foulness  of  some  parts  of  our  city. 

But  the  necessity  of  sanitary  measures  could  not  be 
better  brought  out  than  by  the  following  extracts  from 
a  report  given  last  summer  by  Dr.  Letheby,  to  the  City 
Commissioners  of  Sowers  for  London : 

"  I  have  also  been  at  much  pains  during  the  last  three 
months  to  ascertain  the  precise  conditions  of  the  dwell- 
ings, the  habits,  and  the  diseases  of  the  poor.  In  this 
way,  2208  rooms  have  been  most  circumstantially  in- 
spected, and  the  general  result  is,  that  nearly  all  of  them 
are  filthy,  or  over-crowded,  or  imperfectly  drained,  or 
badly  ventilated,  or  out  of  repair.  In  1989  of  these 
rooms,  all,  in  fact,  that  are  at  present  inhabited,  there 
are  5791  inmates,  belonging  to  1576  famihes;  and  to 
say  nothing  of  the  too  frequent  occurrence  of  what 
may  be  regarded  as  a  necessitous  over-crowding,  where 
the  husband,  the  wife,  and  young  family  of  four  or  five 
children  are  cramped  into  a  miserably  small  and  ill- 
conditioned  room,  there  are  numerous  instances  where 
adults  of  both  sexes,  belonging  to  difierent  famOies,  are 
lodged  in  the  same  room,  regardless  of  all  the  common 
decencies  of  life,  and  where  from  three  to  five  adults, 
men  and  women,  besides  a  train  or  two  ot  children,  art 
accustomed  to  herd  together  like  brute  beasts  or  sav- 
ages ;  and  where  every  human  instinct  of  propriety  or 
decency  are  smothered.  Like  my  predecessor,  I  havo 
seen  grown  persons  of  both  sexes  sleeping  in  common 
with  their  parents,  brothers,  and  sisters,  and  cousins,  anc 
even  the  casual  acquaintance  of  a  day's  tramp  occupy 
ing  the  same  bed  of  filthy  rags  or  straw ;  a  womaji  suf- 
fering in   travail,  in  the  midst  of  male's  and  females  of 


APPENDIX  193 

different  families  that  tenant  the  same  rv  jni ;  where 
birth  and  death  go  hand  in  hand ;  where  the  child  but 
newly  bora,  the  patient  cast  down  with  fever,  and  the 
corpse  waiting  for  interment,  have  no  separation  from 
eacn  other,  or  Irom  the  rest  of  the  inmates.  Of  the 
many  cases  to  which  I  have  alluded,  there  are  some 
that  have  commanded  my  attention  by  reason  of  their 
unusual  depravity — cases  in  which  from  three  to  foui 
adults  of  both  sexes,  %vith  many  children,  were  lodging 
in  the  same  room,  and  often  sleeping  in  the  same  bed. 
I  have  note  of  three  or  four  localities  where  48  men,  75 
women,  and  59  children  are  Uving  in  34  rooms.  In  one 
room  there  are  2  men,  3  women,  and  5  children ;  and  in 
another  1  man,  4  women,  and  2  children ;  and  when 
about  a  fortnight  since,  I  visited  the  back  room  on  the 
ground  floor  of  No.  5,  I  found  it  occupied  by  1  man,  2 
women,  and  2  cliildren ;  and  in  it  was  the  dead  body 
of  a  poor  girl,  who  had  died  in  childbirth  a  few  days  be- 
fore. The  body  was  stretched  out  on  the  bare  floor, 
without  shroud  or  cofiBn.  There  it  lay  in  the  midst  of 
the  Uving,  and  we  may  well  ask  how  it  can  be  other- 
wise than  that  the  human  heart  should  be  deadened  to 
all  the  gentler  feelings  of  our  nature,  when  such  sights 
as  these  are  of  common  occurrence. 

"So  close  and  unwholesome  is  the  atmosphere  of 
some  of  the  rooms,  that  I  have  endeavored  to  ascertain, 
by  chemical  means,  whether  it  does  not  contain  some 
peculiar  product  of  decomposition,  that  gives  to  it  its  foul 
odor  and  its  rare  powers  of  engendering  disease.  I 
find  that  it  is  not  only  deficient  in  the  due  proportion 
of  oxygen,  but  it  contains  three  times  the  usual  amount 
of  carbonic  acid,  besides  a  quantity  of  aqueous  vapor 
17 


194  APPENDIX. 

charged  with  alkaUne  matter  that  stinks  abominably 
This  is,  doubtless^  the  product  of  putrefaction  and  of  the 
v^arious  foetid  and  stagnant  exhalations  that  pollute  the 
air  of  the  place.  In  niany  of  my  former  reports,  and  in 
those  of  my  predecessor,  your  attention  has  been  drawn 
to  this  pestilential  source  of  disease,  and  to  the  conse- 
quence of  heaping  human  beings  into  such  contracted 
locaUties ;  and  I  again  revert  to  it  because  of  its  great 
importance,  not  merely  that  it  perpetuates  fever  and  the 
allied  disorders,  but  because  there  stalks  side  by  side 
with  this  pestilence  a  yet  deadlier  presence,  blighting 
the  moral  existence  of  a  rising  population,  rendering 
their  hearts  hopeless,  their  acts  ruffianly  and  incestuous, 
and  scattering,  while  society  averts  her  eye,  the  retribu- 
tive seeds  of  increase  for  crime,  turbulence,  and  pauper, 
ism." 

All  who  are  familiar  with  the  homes  of  the  poorer  and 
the  haunts  of  the  wicked  and  lapsed  classes,  will  be 
reminded  by  this  report  of  scenes  which  they  themselves 
have  witnessed  in  our  large  cities. 

Before  the  Statistical  Society  at  Liverpool,  in  Septem- 
ber, 1837,  Mr.  Langton  read  a  paper  on  the  inhabited 
courts  and  cellars  in  Liverpool.  The  courts  were  2271, 
and  the  cellars  7493 ;  dark,  damp,  confined,  and  tenanted 
by  nea-ly  30,000  souls. 

In  1838,  Mr.  James  Hey  wood  read  a  paper  before  the 
Statistical  Society  of  London,  giving  an  account  of  a 
house-to-house  visitation,  of  176  families  in  Manchester. 
165  houses  contained  many  cellars,  and  there  w^ere  11 
separate  cellars. 

In  1847  a  committee  of  the  Statistical  Society  of  Lon- 
don inspected  thf  dwellings,  room  by  room,  and  condi- 


APPENDIX.  196 

don  of  the  inhabitants,  of  Church  Lane,  St  Giles,  Londoa 
The  population  examined  was  463,  the  number  of  fami- 
lies 100,  and  the  number  of  bedsteads  among  them  90. 
There  was  an  average,  therefore,  of  above  5  persons  to  1 
bed ;  and  many  rooms  were  inliabited  by  as  many  as  22 
souls.  They  report  that  "  in  these  wretched  dwellings 
all  ages  and  both  sexes,  fathers  and  daughters,  mothers 
and  sons,  grown-up  brothers  and  sisters,  stranger  adult 
males  and  females,  and  swarms  of  children,  the  sick,  the 
dying,  and  the  dead,  are  herded  together  with  a  proxim- 
ity and  mutual  pressure  which  brutes  would  resist ;  where 
it  is  physically  impossible  to  preserve  the  ordinary  decen- 
cies of  life ;  where  all  sense  of  propriety  and  self-respect 
must  be  lost,  to  be  replaced  only  by  a  recklessness  of 
demeanor  which  necessarily  results  from  vitiated  minds , 
and  yet  with  many  of  the  young,  brought  up  in  such 
hot-beds  of  mental  pestilence,  the  hopeless,  but  benevo- 
lent attempt  is  making  to  implant,  by  means  of  general 
education,  the  seeds  of  religion,  virtue,  truth,  order,  in- 
dustry, and  cleanhness ;  but  which  seeds,  to  fructify  ad- 
vantageously, need,  it  is  to  be  feared,  a  soil  far  less  rank 
than  can  be  found  in  these  wretched  abodes.  Tender 
minds,  once  vitiated,  present  almost  insuperable  difficul- 
t'es  to  reformation;  bad  habits  and  depraved  feelings 
gather  with  the  growth,  and  strengthen  with  the 
strength." 

1  a  what  large  town  in  the  kingdom  are  not  many  of 
the  poorer  classes  of  the  people  hving  in  circumstances 
whiv  h  outrage  all  decency,  destroy  every  moral  feeling, 
and,  of  necessity,  lead  to  debasement,  dissipation,  and 
crime  .* 


196 


APPENDIX. 


The  principle  of  temperance^  as  I  hold  it. — P.  118. 

For  a  luminous  and  powerful  exposition  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  temperance,  as  held  by  the  writer  of  these  ser- 
mons, he  would  refer  the  reader  to  a  lecture  delivered  i^ 
London,  by  Professor  James  MiUer  of  this  city,  and  en 
titled  "Abstinence,  its  Place,  and  Power." 


We  do  nothing  to  instruct  them,  So.  We  first  con- 
demn them  to  crime,  and  then  condemn  them  tt 
punishment. — P.  13*7. 

The  following  statistics,  like  aU  others  of  the  same  de- 
scription, plainly  show  how  intimately  crime  is  connected 
with  ignorance,  and  what  a  total  want  of  education  ex- 
ists amongst  the  lowest  class,  which  furnish  by  far  the 
larger  number  of  the  criminals  of  our  country. 

Extract  from  the  Criminal  Statistics  and  Returns  of 
the  Manchester  Police, 

The  following  is  a  table  of  the  age  of  the  persons 
taken  into  custody,  with  the  degree  of  instruction,  for 
t>ie  nine  months  ending  30th  September,  1856 : — • 


No. 

Under  10  years 
of  age. 

10  vears  and 
under  15. 

15  years  and 
under  20. 

Above 
20  years  of  age. 

44T0 

10 

418 

963 

8079         j 

APPENDIX. 


197 


Deoreb  op  Instruction  of  these  4470. 


Neither  able  to 
read  or  write. 

Read  only,  or  read 
and  write 
imperfectly. 

Read  and  write 
well. 

Superior 
instruction. 

1743 

2623 

103 

1 

Per  Centage. 

Total. 

Of  the 
uneduoated. 

Of  the 
imperfectly 
educated. 

Of  the 

well  and  superior 

educated. 

4470 

38-99 

5S-68 

2-32 

In  regard  to  by  far  the  largest  proportion  of  those 
entered  in  the  column  of  the  imperfectly  educated,  so 
far  as  all  practical  purposes  and  the  benefits  of  education 
are  concerned,  they  might  with  propriety  be  entered 
under  the  head  of  not  educated  at  all ;  for  it  has  always 
been  found  that  those  who  could  not  read  but  with  dif- 
ficulty did  not  read  at  all,  and  were  as  completely  shut 
out  from  such  means  of  improvement  as  books  afibrded 
as  those  who  do  not  know  the  letters. 


Inhere  are  thousands^  and  tens  of  thousands^  and 
hundreds  of  thousands^  of  the  children  of  this 
land,  who  are  growing  up  strangers  to  the  bene- 
fits and  blessings  of  education^  Ignorance  is  their 
sole,  sad  inheritance.  They  are  punished  for  it^ 
impoverished  for  it,  imprisoned  for  it,  banished 
for  it,  and  hanged  for  it. — P.  139. 

For  full  proof  of  this  statement,  we  refer  to  the  Gov- 
ernment census  on  education. 


198  APPENDIX. 

Tlie  low  state  of  education  in  Birmingham,  where  in- 
fant labor  .8  n.munerative,  and  where  thousands  of  poor 
children  are  found  at  work  who  ought  to  be  at  school,  is 
strikingly  brought  out  by  the  fact  that  fourteen  months 
is  the  full  average  time  which  the  working  classes  of 
Birmingham  spend  at  school. 

In  regard  to  Glasgow,  we  have  been  told  that  Mr. 
Strang,  the  great  statist  of  Glasgow,  calculates  that  there 
are  from  6000  to  7000  children  in  that  city,  between  5 
and  10  years  of  age,  who  are  not  attending  any  school. 
Captain  Smart,  the  very  intelligent  superintendent  of 
police  in  that  city,  reckons  that  the  number  of  these 
children  will  exceed  10,000.  A  remarkably  able,  and 
intelligent  gentleman,  who  has  given  much  attention  to 
philanthropic  subjects,  writes  me  in  reference  to  Glas- 
gow : — "  I  have  had  occasion  to  observe,  since  the  Ecgis- 
tration  Act  came  into  operation,  that  wliile  bastardy  is 
common  among  mill-workers,  the  inability  to  write  is 
equally  common.  The  number  of  uneducated  adults  is 
very  great.  It  is  of  great  importance  to  observe  that 
the  schools  are  unequally  distributed,  I  find  that  in 
twelve  districts,  containing  12,194  habitually  non-churx3h- 
Qoing  families,  there  are  no  schools ;  and  these  districts 
include  streets  teeming  with  '  ragged  boys.'  "  Now, 
these  figures,  which  I  believe  are  correct,  square  with 
others  upon  which  I  place  more  reliance.  The  Tron 
parish,  which  may  be  regarded  as  a  medium  example  of 
the  parishes  which  contain  the  bulk  of  the  poor  popula- 
tion, contains  2200  families,  and  estimating  each  family 
at  nearly  6  individuals,  which  I  believe  is  a  truer  estimate 
than  4^,  the  population  of  this  paiish  is  13,500.  In  this 
^^arish  there  are  3  schools,  and  at  these  schools  there  are 


APPENDIX. 


199 


not  more  tnan  500  children.  But  each  family  can  sup^ 
ply  a  child  between  5  and  11  years  of  age,  and  thus 
there  is  only  a  fraction  of  the  children  at  school.  This 
district  contains  many  of  the  city  Arab  tribe.  How 
credible,  Dr.  Bell  adds,  is  the  remark  which  Mr.  M'Cal- 
lum,  the  admirable  Superintendent  of  the  Reformatory 
School,  made  to  me  :— "  It  is  a  rare  thing  to  meet  with 
an  educated  juvenile  criminal ;  as  a  class  they  are  deplor- 
ably ignorant." 

That  the  want  of  education  is  far  greater  in  Glasgow 
than  any  thing  which  Mr.  Strang  or  the  superintendent 
of  poUce  has  conjectured— for  these  gentlemen  do  not 
profess  to  do  any  thing  more  than  hazard  a  conjecture— 
wiU  appear  by  looking  into  the  state  of  another  large 
manufacturing  town,  where  the  Education  question  has 
been  keenly  discussed  for  many  years,  and  the  truth  con- 
nected with  it  thoroughly  expiscated.     I  refer  to  Man- 
chester; and  as  's  Manchester,  I  have  no  doubt,  so  are 
almost  all  our  larg  '  manufacturing  towns.     Our  demand 
for  Educational  leg  slation,  extension,  and  improvement, 
is  sometimes  met  by  the  statement  that  we  have  made 
such  progress  with  our  present  means  and  machinery, 
that  it  is  best  to  let  things  alone,  and  that  in  the  course 
of  years  the  evil  will  be  completely  met.     In  many  parts 
of  the  country,  no  doubt,  much  progress  in  a  right  direc- 
tion has  been  made,  but  apart  altogether  from  the  case, 
of  the  thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands  whom  the 
let-alone  system  consigns  to  ruin,  until  it  grows  adequate 
to  the  wants  of  the  country,  on  the  very  improbable  sup- 
position that  it  would  ever  do  so,  it  is  not  the  fact  that 
the  state  of  matters  is  getting  better  in  our  large  towns 
under  the  present  system.     The  fact  is,  that  notwith. 


200 


APPENDIX. 


standing  all  the  exertions  made  mder  the  present 
plan  to  meet  the  evil  and  mako  headway,  with  all 
the  steam  up,  we  are  going  astern  in  our  large  manu- 
facturing towns ;  the  evil  is  growing  worse  and  worse 
That  appears  from  the  following  table,  extracted  from 
the  Manchester  and  Salford  Statistical  Society's  Ee- 
ports : — 


Year. 

In  Manchester,  Salford,  Broughton,  and  Pendleton. 

( 

Proportion. 

Day  School  Attendance. 
Total,  public  and  private. 

Population. 

One  In 

!    1884-5    1                  24,365 

1                    1 

250,373 

10,27 

'      1851      1                  29,145 

307,816 

13,30 

It  appears,  therefore,  in  respect  to  day-school  attend- 
ance, at  the  present  time,  it  is  worse  than  it  was  17 
years  ago ;  inasmuch  as  from  1834-5  tr  1851,  day-school 
attendance,  considered  in  relation  to  ne  population,  has 
decreased  from  1  in  every  10  to  1  ii   13  odds. 

The  following  Table  gives  us  th«^  educational  wants  ot 
Manchester,  as  ascertained  in  1851 ;  and  taking  that 
town  as  a  standard  by  which  to  judge  of  our  great 
centres  of  manufacture,  it  is  dreadful  to  think  of  the 
total  number  of  children  in  this  kingdom  whom  our 
present  system  leaves  parents,  in  so  many  instances, 
to  bring  up  to  the  curses,  and  miseries,  and  crimes  of 
ignorance — a  disgrace,  a  danger,  and  a  burden  to  the 
community. 


APPENDIX. 


201 


Estimated  number  of  Chtldeen  of  thb  "Working  Classes,  be- 
tween 3  AND  15,  NEITHER  "AT  SCHOOL,"  NOR  "AT  WORK." 


PRIVATE  INQUIRY, 

CENSUS  RETURNS. 

INCLUDING  CHILDREN  NOT  IN  THB 

(Evidence,  p.  470.) 

CENSUS  RETURNS. 

(Evidence,  pp.  359,  361.) 

Total  No.  of  Chil-  )  .„f.  p..  J 

dren  under  15  \  ^^^'^^^1 

"    under  8 32,11B 

Total  No.  of  Children  be- 

tween 3  and  15 

99,193! 

Total  Number  of  Children' 

Children  of  all  classes 

between  3  and  15 

98,490 

attending  school . . .  34,073 

Total    No.    re- 

Children not  at  school. 

ceiving    ani/ 

■     but  suppo-sed  to  be- 

kind  of  daily 

.    long  to  tJie  middle 

instruction..  44,598 

!    and  upper  classes. 

Under  3 634 

,    at  home,  in  employ- 

ment,  or  receiving 

Total    receivinff  any 

private  education,.  10,450 

kind  of  daily   in- 

(Assume  four  fifths  of 

!    st)'wc'tio>i,  between 

children    "in    em- 

3  and  15 43,964 

plovment"  (Census 
Table)  to  belong  to 

iChildreu  of  all  classes 

in          employment 

the  working  class- 

(same age) 14,660 

''  Children  receiving  instruc- 

es)   11,T28 

Children   "a<   schooV    or 

tion,"  or  "  at  work"" 

58,624 

"  at  work!'' 

56,251 

Children  not    described   as 

i     "  receiving      instruction" 

Children    of   the   workir.g 

j    either   "at  home"  or  "at 

classes  not "  at  school"  nor 

1    school,"  or  "in  employ- 
ment"  

" at  work" 

42,942 

39,866 

Remarks  on  the  Census  Returns. 

1.  These  returns  include  all  children  whom  the  differ- 
ent parties  that  made  the  returns  considered  to  he  re- 
ceiving any  kind  of  daily  instruction,  either  "  under  a 
master  or  governess  at  home,"  or  by  attending  school. 

2.  The  better  educated  classes  of  society  would  gen- 
erally make  such  returns  pretty  correctly ;  and,  there- 
fore^ comparatively  few  of  the  children  of  these  classes 


202  APPENDIX. 

will  be  found  among  such,  as  in  tlit   above  table,  are 
"  undescribed." 

3.  The  less  educated  and  many  of  the  working  classes 
are  known  to  have  very  lax  notions  respecting  school 
attendance  ;  and,  therefore,  the  returns  from  those  classes 
may  be  considered  to  be  much  exaggerated. 

4.  And  consequently  it  is  probable  that  the  number 
of  children  "  undescribed"  will  fall  short  of  the  whole 
number  of  children  of  the  ivorJcing  classes  alone,  who, 
though  not  prevented  by  "work,"  are  not  ^^ attending 
day  school." 

Remarks  on  the  Private  Inquiry. 

1.  The  number  of  "  children  attending  school"  ex- 
ceeds by  5358  the  corresponding  returns  of  the  census, 
Ev.  p.  475 ;  although  the  total  number  of  children  in 
this  Table  exceeds  that  with  which  it  is  compared  by 
only  703  children;  and  therefore  this  Table  makes  a 
very  liberal  representation  of  the  total  school  attendance. 

2.  No  evidence  has  been  adduced  to  show  that  the 
additional  number  (22,178)  here  taken  to  represent  the 
children  of  the  middle  and  upper  classes  "  at  home"  or  "  in 
employment,"  together  with  those  of  the  worhing  classes 
"  in  employment,"  is  likely  to  be  below  the  actual  number. 

3.  And,  conseciuently,  the  statements  in  ths  Tablei 
representing  the  average  number  of  children  of  the 
working  classes  neither  "at  school"  nor  "in  employ- 
ment," have  no  less  claim  for  consideration  than  tlie 
Census  Table,  although  it  appears  to  differ  in  the  result. 

It  has  been  stated  in  evidence  (pages  360,  391)  that 
about  "  54,670  children  belonging  to  the  lahorinn  classes. 


APPENDIX.  203 

whether  employed  or  not,  are  not  attending  day  schools, ^^ 
and  that  no  reason  has  been  alleged,  that  ought  to  be 
considered  satisfactory,  why  "  one  half,  at  least,"  of  that 
number  ought  not  "  to  be  in  some  school  receiving  edu- 
cation." It  is  indeed  highly  probable  that,  at  the  pre- 
sent time,  there  are  not  fewer  than  20,000  or  30,000 
children  of  the  laboring  classes  kept  from  day  school, 
without  being  in  employment  or  detained  at  home 
through  sickness,  domestic  need,  or  any  other  sufficient 
cause,  and  who  ought  therefore  to  be  gathered  into  school 

The  most  extraordinary  errors  may  lurk  under  gen- 
eral statistics  ;  the  public^  judging  hy  them  alone^ 
may  cherish  the  delusion  that  all  is  right  when 
much  is  wrong. — P.  143. 

How  easily  statistical  facts,  unless  regarded  in  all  their 
bearings,  may  be  the  means  of  producing  a  false  impres- 
sion, is  illustrated  by  the  following  Table.  Looking  only 
at  the  increase  of  attendance  at  the  Church  of  England, 
British,  and  Denominational  Schools,  one  would  infer  a 
great  improvement  in  the  educational  state  of  Manches- 
ter; but  further  inquijy  shows,  that  what  one  class  of 
schools  has  gained  another  has  lost ;  that  the  scholars 
lave  not  increased  as  thej  should  have  done,  but  only 
shifted  their  ground. 

From  that  Table,  also,  it  will  be  seen,  that  while  the 
utendance  at  Church  and  Denominational  Schools  has 
increased  since  1834-5,  from  5434  to  16,367,  the  attend- 
ance at  Private  Schools,  of  all  classes,  has  decreased  from 
18,465  to  11,713.  And  hence  it  appears  that  the  in- 
creased attendance  at  Public  Schools  is  to  be  attributed 


204 


APPENDIX. 


in  a  nmch  greater  degree  to  the  withdrawing  of  children 
from  Private  Schools,  than  to  the  bringing  of  additional 
children  under  tlie  influence  of  education. 

This  circumstance  is  the  more  important  when  taken 
m  connection  with  the  fact,  that  the  increase  of  school 
attendance  during  the  last  17  years  has  fallen  short  con- 
siderably of  the  increase  of  the  population. 


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APPENDIX.  205 

WTiile  it  is  the  duty  of  the  state  to  )  rovide  ihi  means 
of  education,  it  is  no  less  her  duty  to  see  that  they 
are  used. — P.  144. 

It  appears  to  us  plain  that  society  should  charge  itself 
with  the  duty  of  promptly  meeting  the  educational 
wants  of  our  country.  The  very  existence  of  Britain's 
power  and  position,  the  interests  of  religion,  the  welfare 
of  the  nation,  are  involved  in  this  subject.  The  question 
of  a  complete  rehgious  education  belongs  to  the  churches ; 
the  question  of  such  an  education  as  shall  make  men 
useful  members  of  society  belongs  to  the  state;  and 
while  we  would  strongly  deprecate  a  secular  system  of 
education,  excluding  the  leading  principles  of  a  common 
Christianity  from  our  common  schools;  unless  the  differ- 
ent denominations  will  so  agree  to  make  that  practicable 
they  will  drive  men  into  the  secular  system ;  for  surely 
better  that  these  poor  children  should  get  some  instruc- 
tion than  that  they  be  left  without  any  knowledge—to 
hve,  and  sin,  and  die  uninstructed  as  the  brutes  that 
perish. 

It  is  a  scandal  to  the  churches  that  there  should  be 
any  difficulty  found  in  agreeing  on  a  system  of  rehgious 
instruction  suitable  to  little  children.  We  are  sure  that 
that  difficulty  has  no  foundation  in  the  Word  of  God. 
What  have  these  infants  to  do  with  those  ecclesiastical 
and  doctrinal  questions  which  unhappily  divido  good 
men  among  us?  If  we  that  are  adults  can  alw^ays  join 
in  private  worship  with  each  other,  and  on  occasions  in 
pubUc  worship,  and  even  sit  down  at  the  Lord's  table 
with  each  other,  recognising  amid  all  our  differences  a 
common  brotherhood  and  a  common  faith,  it  were  a 
18 


206  APPENDIX. 

melancholy  thing  indeed  if  we  cannot  agree  al*out  the 
simple  elements  of  religion  that  are  to  be  taught  to  little 
children ;  and  that  this  wretched  diflaculty  should  be  an 
obstruction  in  the  way  of  that  national  system  of  edu- 
cation which  the  state  is  bound  to  estabhsh,  and  without 
which  no  voluntary  efforts  will  ever  meet  the  wants  of 
the  country. 

It  should  encourage  Government  and  the  ParUament 
to  know  that  the  people  belonging  to  the  different  de- 
nominations do  not  sympathise  with  the  extremer  views 
of  their  ministers,  and  that  they  would  heartily  rejoice 
in  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  education  which 
would  meet  the  wants  of  the  country,  although  it  did 
not  meet  the  views  and  demands  of  those  ecclesiastics 
who  would  perversely  sacrifice  the  interests  of  the  peo- 
ple to  their  own  crotchets,  love  of  power,  or  denomina 
tional  peculiarities. 

So  long  as  this  is — what,  no  doubt,  it  will  ever  be — a 
Protestant  countiy,  the  Protestant  religion  should  be 
that  of  national  schools;  but  communicated  in  such  a 
way  as  to  give  complete  freedom  to  the  consciences  of 
Roman  Catholics,  or  any  other  party  declining  to  receive 
the  religious  instruction  provided  in  the  public  schools. 
The  children  of  Roman  Catholic  parents  may  be  allowed 
to  leave  the  school  at  the  time  of  religious  instruction  ; 
or  whenever,  if  such  a  system  should  be  preferred,  there 
were  a  sufficient  number  of  Roman  Cathohcs  as  to  fur- 
nish children  for  a  school  supported  out  of  the  public 
funds,  let  these  be  applied  to  giving  secular  instruction 
only — the  religious  education  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  beiijg  left  to  parents  or  priests.  Thus  the  coun- 
try would  sec  ire  that  all  these  children  receive  a  good 


APPENDIX.  207 


secular  education,  and  the  country  would  not  be  em- 
ploying the  public  funds  in  the  propagation  of  what  th.3 
Protestant  kingdom  regards  as  dangerous  errors. 

Whatever   arrangement  the   state  may  make   as  to 
these  matters,  one  thing  she  is  entitled  and  bound  to  do, 
and  that  is  this,  to  require  that  every  child  within  her 
bounds  shall  be  educated.     If  the  parents  are  able  but 
unwilling  to  do  that,  they  should  be  compelled  to  do  it-- 
punished  if  they  don't  do  it.     If  they  are  not  able  to  do 
that,  then  it  should  be  done  at  the  public  expense      lo 
make  sure  that  this  is  done,  a  system  of  inspection  should 
be  estabhshed.     Such  a  system  would  not  be  found  to 
interfere  in  the  least  degree  with  the  rights  and  liberties 
of  those  who  do  their  duty  to  their  children  and  to  th(. 
state;  Uke  other  arrangements  and  laws  for  the  preserv- 
ing  of  honesty  and  order,  that  system  would  only  be  i 
teLr,  and  a  check,  and  a  yoke  to  "  evil-doers."    Peopk 
might  send  their  children  to  pubhc  schools  or  pnvat, 
schools,  national   or   denominational   schools;    but  the 
state  is  entitled  to  see  that  they  are  receiving  at  least  a 
plain  education  at  some  school 

The  state  is  called  on  to  extend  the  law  to  all  man- 
ufactures, work,  and  service,  which  applies  at  present 
to  the  flax  and  cotton  mills.  Why  should  the  children 
laboring  in  these  manufactories  enjoy  a  protection  demed 
to  othe^rs?  what  is  good  for  them  is  good  for  others; 
what  was  needed  by  them  is  needed  by  thousands  and 
tens  of  thousands  of  the  children  whose  education  i9 
a^^crlected,  and  whose  best  interests  are  sacrificed  to  the 
nrofits  of  their  masters  and  the  cupidity  of  their  parents. 
The  state  should  require,  as  it  does  in  other  countries, 
that  no  child  be  allowed  to  engage  in  any  kind  of  remu- 


208  APPENDIX, 

nerative  labor  until  it  has  received  a  plain  education,  oi 
unless  arrangements  are  made,  while  it  is  engaged  in 
service  or  in  manufacture,  to  conduct  and  complete  its 
education  by  so  many  hours  a-day  being  set  apart  to 
that  purpose. 

It  is  a  most  interesting  fact  that  John  Knox — in  whose 
eye  education  bulked  so  large,  that  at  the  Reformation 
he  proposed  that  one-fourth  and  more  of  the  whole  of 
the  immense  revenues  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
(the  greater  part  of  which  were  devoured  by  the  Crown 
and  nobles)  should  be  sacredly  devoted  to  the  purpose 
of  educating  the  children  of  the  nation — three  hundred 
years  ago  laid  down  the  very  principle  which  we  advo- 
cate, and  which  is  carried  into  practical  effect  with  so 
much  advantage  in  some  parts  of  the  Continent.  It  re-, 
fleets  immortal  honor  on  the  memory  of  that  great  man, 
that  the  education  of  the  people  was  with  him  a  first  ob- 
ject; one  to  be  striven  for  most  resolutely,  and  paid  for  most 
liberally ;  and  that  he  had  the  far-seeing  eye  to  discern 
the  great  principle  on  which  the  working  of  the  system 
should  be  based, — viz.,  the  right  and  duty  of  the  state  to 
require  that  every  child  within  its  bounds  shall  receive 
such  an  education  as  to  make  it  a  useful  member  of  so- 
ciety. He  has  embodied  that  in  these  words,  extracted 
from  the  First  Book  of  DiscipHne,  which  was  laid  before 
the  G-reat  Council  of  Scotland  in  1560: — "  This  must  be 
carefully  provided,  that  no  father,  of  what  state  or  con- 
dition that  ever  he  be,  use  his  children  at  his  own  fan- 
tasie,  especially  in  their  youth-head;  but  all  must  be 
compelled  to  bring  up  their  children  in  learning  and 
rirtue.'' 


APPENDIX.  209 


In  the  United  States  of  America^  by  one  cf  their  last 
reports  J  complaints  appear  to  come  from  every  pari 
of  the  country  that  parents  neglect  to  send  their 
children  to  school. — P.  144. 

See  the  Twentieth  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of 
Education,  published  at  Boston,  1857. 

What  an  appaling  picture  of  irreligion  do  our  large 
towns  present ! — P.  151. 

Edinburgh. — The  Report  of  the  Royal  Commissioners 
on  Religious  Instruction  proclaimed  the  fact,  that  one- 
third  of  the  entire  population  of  Edinburgh,  or  50,000 
people,  had  no  fixed  connection  with  any  Cliristian 
Church. 

Glasgow. — In  this  city  the  proportion  of  its  inhabit- 
ants which  should  be  found  attending  church  is,  at  the 
lowest  computation,  above  200,000.  The  whole  amount 
of  church  accommodation  there  is  for  140,000.  So  that 
if  aU  the  churches  were  filled  to  overflowing,  there  would 
still  be  more  than  60,000  in  that  city  who  were  attend- 
ing no  house  of  Grod.  But  one  of  the  most  benevolent 
and  intelligent  and  Christian  merchants  of  Glasgow  in- 
formed me  that  many  of  the  churches  are  not  more  than 
naif  filled ;  so  that  we  may  consider  ourselves  as  making 
a  very  moderate  calculation  in  concluding  that  more 
than  100,000  people  in  the  city  of  Glasgow  are  living  in 
a  state  of  practical  heathenism  in  this  Christian  land. 

These  calculations  are  corroborated  by  the  statistics  of 
the  City  Missic^n,  published  in  February,  1856.  It  ap- 
18* 


210  APPENDIX. 

pears  from  this  document  that  they  have  divided  the 
city  into  54  districts,  and  that  in  these  districts  there  are 
25,5'IG  families  who  are  on  the  whole  non-ehurch-going, 
and  15,675  families  who  never  enter  a  church.  These 
are  nominally  Protestants.  It  is  estimated  by  them  that 
each  family  consists  of  4i  individuals;  and  thus  there 
are  110,699  individuals  who  are  on  the  whole  non- 
church-going,  and  67,925  who  never  enter  a  church. 

An  admirable  Report,  entitled  '•  Mission  Churches  of 
the  United  Presbyterian  Church  in  Glasgow,"  fully  bears 
out  the  preceding  statements.  From  a  thorough  exam- 
ination of  the  state  of  the  city,  and  careful  calculations, 
they  arrive  at  this  conclusion,  that  in  Glasgow  there  are 
"  in  addition  to  the  Roman  CathoHcs,  100,204  persons 
living  in  open  contempt  of  the  ordinances  of  religion. 
The  astounding  fact  is  thus  reached,  that  we  are  hving 
in  the  midst  of  180,000  fellow-citizens,  popish  and  hea- 
then, that  is,  one-half  of  our  entire  population  who  stand 
in  pressing  need  of  our  missionary  exertions." 

London  and  its.  Districts  some  years  ago  contained  a 
population  of  2,434,868.  The  city  was  increasing  annu- 
ally at  the  rate  of  25,000.  The  accommodation  provided 
in  the  churches  of  all  denominations  would  not  accom- 
modate one-third  of  the  whole  population ;  and  although 
these  were  all  full  to  overflowing,  London  would  contain 
649,297  hving  in  a  state  of  practical  heathenism.  But 
it  is  a  notorious  fact  that  a  great  many  of  the  churches 
in  the  metropolis  are  miserably  thin ;  and  there  can  be 
00  doubt  of  the  ti'uth  of  the  terrible  statement,  that 
more  tlian  One  Million  of  the  people  of  London  are  hv- 
ing in  the  hal'it  of  neglectiog  the  worship  and  house  of 
God. 


APPENDIX.  211 


We  have  had  already  fruit  of  our  labors. — P.  154, 

The  following  statement  regarding  the  Pleasance  Ter- 
ritorial Mission  was  published  by  my  colleague,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Hanna,  to  whose  zeal  and  labors  under  God,  thia 
interesting  and  important  work  owes  much  of  its  exist- 
ence and  success. 


Pleasance  Territorial  Mission. 

"  This  mission  has  now  been  in  operation  for  about 
four  years.  During  that  time  we  have  succeeded  in  get- 
ting almost  evey  child  of  proper  age  within  the  district 
marked  out  for  our  operations,  to  attend  our  schools- 
There  were  nearly  200  children  in  tliat  position  when 
we  began  our  work.  There  are  not  now  more  than  half 
a  dozen.  Our  success  in  this  department  has  been  com- 
plete. To  realize  it,  we  had  to  buy  a  site  and  build  a 
school-house,  at  a  cost  of  upwards  of  £600,  and  we  had 
to  give  good  salaries  to  our  schoolmaster  and  school- 
mistress. But  it  was  not  the  building  of  the  school- 
house,  nor  the  providing  of  a  good  education  for  all  who 
chose  to  seek  it,  which  accomplished  the  great  object 
we  had  in  view,  namely,  the  bringing  those  children 
to  school  who  otherwise  Avould  have  grown  up  unedu- 
cated. It  was  the  repeated  visits  of  the  missionary,  and 
of  the  lady  agents  to  the  homes  of  the  people,  explam- 
mg  to  them  the  benefits  which  the  school  erected  in 
their  neighborhood  was  fitted  to  confer  upon  their 
families,  and  urging  those  wlio  had  children  of  the  right 
age  to  seed  them  there  to  be  tano-ht,  which  realized  that 


212  APPENDIX. 

end  ;  and  it  is  by  such  means  alone  that  the  m  <»ducated 
children  of  the  lowest  class  of  our  population  can  ever 
be  gathered  into  the  school-house. 

"  But  it  is  far  easier,  within  any  district,  to  bring  every 
child  to  school  than  every  adult  to  church,  especially 
where  neglect  of  divine  ordinances  has  been  of  long  con- 
tinuance, and  is  the  prevailing  habit  of  the  stair,  or  close, 
or  street,  in  which  such  forsakers  of  the  sanctuary  are 
congregated;  To  reclaim  such  to  habits  of  church-going 
is  the  most  difficult  thing  to  which  Christian  benevolence 
can  put  its  hands.  Concentrated  and  sustained  effort, 
much  patience  and  many  prayers,  are  all  required.  But 
our  labors  in  this  department  also  have  not  been  without 
good  fruit.  A  small  congregation,  composed  almost  en- 
tirely of  those  who  had  been  living  in  entire  neglect  of 
divine  ordinances,  has  been  gathering.  For  the  lasi 
three  years  the  ordinance  of  the  Lord's  Supper  has  been 
regularly  dispensed.  One  hundred  and  twelve  individuals 
have  been  admitted  to  the  fellowship  of  the  Church. 
Fifty  of  these  had  never  been  in  connection  with  any 
Cburch ;  so  many  as  thirty-three  of  whom  were  far  ad- 
vanced in  life.  There  were  forty-seven,  with  some  of 
whom  it  had  been  ten,  with  some  twenty,  Avith  some 
thirty  years  since  they  had  sat  down  at  the  table  of  the 
Lord ;  leaving  only  fifteen  out  of  the  hundred  and  twelve 
who  were  in  full  communion  when  they  joined  our  little 
congregation.  The  ordinary  attendance  at  puplic  wor- 
ship, which  began  with  about  a  dozen,  now  averages 
from  eighty  to  a  hundred  in  the  forenoon,  and  from  a 
hundred  to  a  hundred  and  sixty  in  the  afternoon. 

"  The  school-room  in  which  the  services  have  been 
aeld  is  now  quite  fuU    .  /^e  have  arrived  at  that  stage 


APPENDIX.  213 

when,  unless  a  church  and  a  minister  be  provided,  but 
little  further  progress  can  be  made.  We  are  as  far  on — 
we  have  as  many  communicants  and  as  large  an  attend- 
ance, as  any  of  those  territorial  missions  in  whose  steps 
we  are  following  had,  whea  churches  and  ministers  were 
provided  for  them.  It  is  our  intention  to  apply  to  the 
Church  Courts  to  have  Mr.  Cochrane,  our  present  mis- 
sionary, licensed  and  ordained  as  the  minister  of  that 
little  flock  which  he  has  gathered  in  from  the  wilderness. 
At  a  meeting  lately,  held  with  them,  the  communicants 
expressed  this  to  be  their  unanimous  and  most  earnest 
desire.  It  remains  only  that  we  provide  a  suitable  place 
of  worship.  It  has  been  resolved  that  upon  this  building 
there  shall  be  no  debt,  and  that  beyond  the  present 
there  shall  be  no  second  application  made.  Whatever 
be  the  sum  put  into  the  hands  of  the  Committee  ap- 
pointed by  the  Session,  they  are  resolved  not  to  go  a 
farthing  beyond  it  in  their  expenditure.  We  have,  how- 
ever, not  only  a  church  to  build,  we  must  either  enlarge 
our  infant  school-room  or  erect  a  more  commodious  one. 
The  Government  Inspector  of  Schools  has  imposed  upon 
us  the  condition  either  of  doing  this,  or  of  dismissing  a 
number  of  the  cliildren,  which  we  cannot  make  up  our 
minds  to  do.  Without  venturing  to  assign  any  scale  of 
giving,  it  is  our  earnest  hope  that,  by  one  effort  of  gene- 
rosity, we  may  be  enabled  to  perfect  the  external  appa- 
ratus of  this  mission,  and  so  put  it  in  condition  for  making 
that  further  and  still  greater  progress  which  we  can  have 
no  doubt  that,  when  so  furnished,  it  will,  with  the  divine 
blessing,  speedily  realize." 

We  are  now  about  to  build  a  regular  place  of  worship 
in  this  locality  and  to  form  the  people  into  a  regular 


214  APPENDIX. 

congregation  under  an  ordained  minister;  and  as  wa 
must  raise  £1000  at  least  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the 
building,  the  public  are  earnestly  soHcited  to  lend  us  a 
helping  hand.  Any  money  sent  to  the  Kev.  Dr.  Hanna, 
Ciistle  Terrace,  or  the  Rev.  Dr.  Guthrie,  Salisbury  Road, 
Edinburgh,  will  be  gratefully  received.  We  need  sympa- 
thy and  support,  and  we  hope  for  them. 

The  work  would  he  found  to  he  perfectly  practicable 
—Pp.  166,  157. 

On  this  subject  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bonar,  one  of  the  minis- 
ters of  the  Canongate,  in  a  pamplilet  full  of  startling  facts 
and  earnest  pleading,  which  he  has  just  pubUshed,  makes 
the  following  statement  in  reference  to  the  case  of  the 
West-Port  Territorial  Church,  which  is  all  the  more 
valuable  not  only  as  given  by  a  clergyman  who  is 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  condition  of  the  lower 
classes,  but  who  belongs  to  a  different  church  from 
those  who  have  so  successfully  cultivated  that  distri<;t 
of  our  city : — "  So  far  from  being  Utopian,  the  plan  in- 
dicated has  been  justified  by  actual  results.  In  one 
of  the  very  worst  localities  of  Edinburgh,  to  which,  only 
a  few  years  before,  an  infamous  notoriety  attached,  in 
which,  upon  survty,  it  was  found  that  in  the  main 
streets  and  adjoining  wynds,  out  of  411  families,  only 
45  were  attached  to  any  Christian  communion,  70 
were  Roman  Catholics,  and  296  were  entirely  uncon- 
nected with  any  church ;  wherein,  out  of  a  gross  popu- 
lation of  2000,  1500  were  Uving  strangers  to  the  observ- 
ance of  religion,  and  in  which  290  children  were  grow- 
ing up  wholly  untaught ;  a  district  in  which  the  mora 


APPENDIX.  21 0 

and  p  -ysical  condition  of  the  community  was  most  de- 
plorable, one  fourth  being  paupers  and  another  fourth 
street-beggars,  thieves,  and  prostitutes; — in  this  locality 
a  wonderful  change  has  been  brought  about.  The  West- 
Port  was  divided  into  twenty  districts,  each  containing 
twenty  families.  A  school  was  opened — not  on  the  sys- 
tem of  gratuitous  instruction — first  of  all,  at  the  end  of 
the  close  where  the  atrocities  of  Burke  and  Hare  had 
been  committed,  in  an  old  deserted  tannery,  approached 
by  a  flight  of  wooden  steps.  At  the  outset  appearances 
were  abundantly  unpromising,  and  on  the  first  occasion, 
after  the  advices,  requests,  and  entreaties  which  had  for 
many  previous  weeks  been  brought  to  bear  upon  those 
whose  highest  good  was  contemplated  and  desired,  only 
about  a  dozen  adults,  and  these  chiefly  old  women,  were 
present.  Now  there  is  a  substantial  church,  well  at- 
tended, a,id  not  long  since  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  a 
gallery ;  schools,  week-day  and  evening,  largely  attend- 
ed likewise,  with  the  other  desiderata  of  a  hbrary  and  a 
savings-bank,  a  washing-house,  and  a  female  industrial 
school  The  problem  has  been  solved.  An  instance 
was  afibrded,  to  adopt  the  words  of  Dr.  Chalmers'  biog- 
rapher, *  in  which  the  depths  of  city  ignorance  and  vice 
have  been  sounded  to  the  very  bottom ;  nor  can  the 
possibility  of  cleansing  the  foul  basement  storey  of  our 
social  edifice  be  doubted  any  longer.'  Nor  do  we  won- 
der that  the  great  Christian  philanthropist — ^for  so  he 
must  be  regarded  by  all  unprejudiced  minds — hailed 
what  he  was  spared  to  see  as  '  the  streaks  and  dawnings 
of  a  better  day,'  and  was  willing,  '  after  the  struggles 
and  discomfitures  of  thirty  years,'  to  '  depart  in  peace, 
and  leave  the  further  prosecution  with  comfort  and  calm- 
ness in  the  hands  of  another  generation.'  " 


RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 


/by 

THOMAS  GUTHRIE,  D,\> 


W-  ^-  W- 

WHO  HAS  HER  NAME  GRAVEN 

AT  FULL  LENGTH 

ON  THE 

GRATEFUL  HEARTS  OF  MANY  CHILDREN  SAVED 

BY  MEANS  OF  THAT 

#rigiEil  ^Efigifi  cfirli00l, 

WHICH  HAS  OWED 

80  MUCH  OF   ITS  SUCCESS 

TO  HER  GENEROUS,  ZEALOUS,  AND 

UNTIRING  LABORS. 

(5) 


OB, 

PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 


FIRST   PLEA. 


ON  approaching  Edinburgh  from  the  west, 
after  the  general  features  which  distance 
presents, — dome,  and  spire,  and  antique  piles 
of  building,  *}ie  Castle  standing  in  the  fore- 
ground, while  Arthur  Seat  raises  its  lion-like 
back  between  the  city  and  the  sea, — the  first 
object  which  attracts  the  eyes  of  a  stranger  is 
a  structure  of  exquisite  and  surpassing  beauty. 
It  might  be  a  palace  for  our  Queen  : — it  is  a 
hospital.  Near  by,  embowered  in  wood,  stands 
an  edifice  of  less  pretensions,  but  also  great 
extent :  it  is  another  hospital.  Within  a  bow- 
shot of  that,  again,  some  fine  open  towers  rise 
1*  (5; 


6  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

from  the  wood  over  a  fair  structure,  with  its 
Grecian  pillars  and  graceful  portico  : — it  is 
anotlier  hospital.  Now  in  the  city,  and  wh.eel- 
ing  round  the  base  of  the  Castle  rock,  he 
drives  on  by  Lauriston.  Not  far  away,  on 
the  outskirts  of  the  town,  pleasantly  planted 
in  a  beautiful  park,  bordered  with  trees,  stands 
an  old-fashioned  building  : — it  is  another  hos- 
pital. In  his  way  along  Lauriston,  within  a 
stone-cast  of  him,  his  eye  catches  the  back  of  a 
large  and  spacious  edifice,  which  looks  beauti- 
fully out  on  the  Meadows,  the  low  Braid  Hills, 
and  the  distant  Pentlands  : — it  is  another  hos-- 
pital.  A  few  turns  of  the  wheel,  and  before 
him,  within  a  fine  park,  or  rather  ornamental 
garden,  stands  the  finest  structure  of  oui 
town, — a  masterpiece  of  Inigo  Jones, — with  a 
princely  revenue  of  £15,000  a  year  : — it  is  an- 
other hospital.  The  carriage  now  jostles  over 
u  stone  ;  tlie  stranger  turns  his  head,  and  sees. 
but  some  hundred  yards  away,  a  large  Dutch- 
like structure,  stretching  out  its  long  lines  of 
windows,  with  the  gilded  ship,  the  sign  of 
commerce,  for  weather-vane,  on  its  summit  :— 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGCED  SCHOOLS.        7 

that  is  another  hospital.  Our  friend  concludes, 
and  not  without  some  reason,  that,  instead  of 
tlie  "Modern  Atliens,"  Edinburgh  might  be 
called  the  City  of  Hospitals. 

I  have  no  quarrel  at  present  with  these  insti- 
tutions :  their  management  is  in  the  hftnds  of 
wise,  excellent,  and  honorable  men  ;  and,  in 
so  far  as  they  fail  to  accomplish  the  good  in- 
tended, it  is  not  that  they  are  mismanaged. 
The  management  is  not  bad  ;  but  in  some  of 
its  elements  the  system  itself  is  vicious.  God 
never  made  men  to  be  reared  in  flocks,  but  in 
families.  Man  is  not  a  gregarious  animal, 
other  than  that  he  lierds  together  with  his  race 
in  towns,  a  congeries  of  families.  Born,  as 
he  is,  with  domestic  affections,  whatever  inter- 
feres with  their  free  play  is  an  evil  to  be 
shunned,  and,  in  its  moral  and  physical  results, 
to  be  dreaded.  God  framed  and  fitted  man  to 
grow  up,  not  under  the  hospital,  but  the  do- 
mestic roof, — whether  that  roof  be  the  canvas 
of  an  Arab  tent,  the  grassy  turf  of  a  Highland 
shieling,  or  the  gilded  dome  of  a  palace.  And 
as  man  was  no  more  made  to  be  reared  in  a 


8  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;   OR, 

hospital  than  the  human  foot  to  grow  in  a 
Chinese  shoe,  or  the  Imman  body  to  be  boui.d 
in  ribs  of  iron  or  whalebone, — acting  in  both 
cases  in  contravention  of  God's  law, — you  are 
as  sure  in  the  first  case  to  inflict  injury  on  his 
moral,  as  in  the  second  on  his  physical  consti- 
tution. They  commit  a  grave  mistake  who 
forget  that  injury  as  inevitably  results  from 
flying  in  the  face  of  a  moral  or  mental,  as  of  a 
physical  law.  So  long  as  rice  is  rice,  you  can- 
not rear  it  on  the  bald  brow  of  a  hill-top  :  it 
loves  the  hollows  and  the  valleys,  with  their 
water-floods  ;  and  so  long  as  man  is  man,  more 
or  less  of  injury  will  follow  the  attempt  to 
rear  him  in  circumstances  for  which  his  Maker 
never  adapted  him. 

But  apart  from  this,  who  and  what  are  the 
children  that,  under  the  roof  of  these  crowded 
hospitals,  receive  shelter,  food,  clothing,  and 
instruction  ?  It  is  much  deplored  by  many, 
and  can  l)e  denied  by  none,  that  in  some  of 
these  hospitals  not  a  few  of  the  inmates  are 
the  children  of  those  wlio  are  able,  and  ought 
to  be  willing, — and,  but  for  the  temptations 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED   SCHOOLS.  9 

these  institutions  present,  would  be  ready, — 
to  train  up  their  children  as  olive  plants 
around  the  domestic  table,  and  rear  them  within 
the  tender,  kind,  holy,  and  heaven-blessed  cir- 
cle of  a  domestic  home.  There  are  nursed 
those  precious  affections  toward  parents,  broth- 
ers, sisters,  and  smiling  babes,  which,  for  man's 
good  in  this  life,  and  the  well-being  of  society, 
are  worth  more  than  all  Greek  and  Roman 
lore.  I  cannot  better  convey  my  ideas  and 
feelings  on  this  matter  than  by  saying,  that 
when  a  Governor  of  Heriot's  Hospital, — a^ 
hospital  which  enjoys  the  care  and  attentioii 
both  of  the  Town  Council  and  the  city  clergy^ 
— I  was  astonished  to  be  applied  to  by  a  re- 
spectable man  on  behalf  of  his  son.  Let  me 
not  be  misunderstood.  I  do  not  much  blame 
parents  and  guardians  for  availing  themselves 
of  these  hospitals,  even  when  they  might  do 
otherwise.  A  well-furnished  table,  lodging 
the  most  comfortable,  a  first-rate  education,  in 
some  instances  valuable  bursaries,  and  occa- 
sionally, when  launched  into  the  world,  a  sum 
of  money  to  float  the  favored  pupil  on, — these 


10  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

present  the  temptation  to  tear  the  child  from 
a  mother's  side,  and  send  it  away  from  a  fa- 
ther's care,  which  it  is  not  easy  to  resist.  Still, 
to  resume  my  narrative,  I  was  amazed  to  re- 
ceive such  an  application  from  such  a  quarter. 
The  applicant  was  a  sober  and  excellent  man, 
living  in  what  the  world  would  count  respect- 
able circumstances.  Knowing  this,  neverthe- 
less I  asked  him,  "  Can  you  give  your  boy  por- 
ridge in  the  morning  ?  "  "  Yes,"  said  he,  sur- 
prised at  such  a  question.  "  Potatoes  to  din- 
ner ?  "  "  Certainly."  "  Porridge  at  night  ?  " 
He  looked  astonished  :  he  knew,  as  I  and  all 
his  neighbors  did,  that  he  was  able  to  do  a 
great  deal  more.  "  Then,"  I  said,  "  my  friend, 
were  I  you,  it  should  not  be  till  they  had  laid 
me  in  my  coffin  that  that  boy  of  mine  should 
lose  the  blessings  of  a  father's  fireside,  and  be 
cast  amid  the  dangers  of  a  public  hospital." 
I  may  perhaps  add,  that  I  thought  him  a  wise 
man,  for  he  took  my  advice.  And  before  leav- 
ing these  hospitals,  I  think  it  right  also  to 
add,  in  justice  to  the  management  of  Heriot's 
Hospital,  and   to   the  honor  of  Mr.  Duncan 


PLEAS  von    RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      11 

Maclaren,  by  whom  the  scheme  was  proposed 
and  carried,  that  some  £3,000  a  year  is  applied 
to  the  maintenance  of  schools  scattered  up  and 
down  the  city,  where  the  children  of  decent 
tradesmen,  mechanics,  and  laborers,  receive  a 
^ood  gratis  education. 

Now,  to  resume,  for  convenience'  sake,  the 
company  of  my  stranger  friend.  Skirting 
along  the  ruins  of  the  old  city  wall,  and  pass- 
ing down  the  Vennel,  we  descend  into  the 
Grassmarket, — a  large,  capacious  place,  with 
the'  exception  of  some  three  or  four  mod- 
ern houses,  still  standing  as  it  did  two  centu- 
ries ago, — the  most  perfect  specimen  in  our 
city  of  the  olden  time.  Its  old  massive  fronts, 
reared  as  if  in  picturesque  contempt  of  modern 
uniformity, — some  with  the  flat  roofs  of  the 
East,  and  others  of  the  Flemish  school,  with 
their  sharp  and  lofty  gables  topped  by  the 
rose,  the  thistle,  and  the  fleur  de  lis, — stLl 
look  down  on  that  square  as  in  the  days 
when  it  was  one  sea  of  heads,  every  eye 
turned  to  the  great  black  gallows,  which 
rose  high   over   all,    and   from   which,   amid 


12  SEED-TIME   AND   HARVEST;  OR, 

the  hushed  and  awful  silence  of  assembled 
thousands,  rose  the  last  psalm  of  a  hero  of 
the  Covenant,  who  had  come  there  to  play  the 
man. 

In  a  small  well-conditioned  town,  with  the 
exception  of  some  children  basking  on  the 
pavement,  and  playing  with  the  dogs  that 
have  gone  over  with  them  to  enjoy  the  sunny 
side,  between  the  hours  of  ten  and  one,  you 
miss  the  Scripture  picture  of  "  boys  and  girls 
playing  in  the  street."  Not  so  in  the  Grass- 
market.  In  two-thirds  of  the  shops,  on  one 
side  of  this  square  (for  we  have  counted  them) 
spirits  are  sold.  The  sheep  are  near  the 
slaughter-house, — the  victims  are  in  the  neigh 
borhood  of  the  altars.  The  mouth  of  almosi 
every  dose  is  filled  with  loungers,  worse  thaii 
Neapolitan  lazzaroni,  —  bloated  and  brutal 
figures,  ragged  and  wretched  old  men,  bold 
a  ad  fierce-looking  women,  and  many  a  half- 
clad  mother,  shivering  in  cold  winter  with  her 
naked  feet  on  the  frozen  pavement,  and  a 
skeleton  infant  in  her  arms.  On  a  summer 
day,  when  in  the  blessed  sunshine  and  warm 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      13 

air  misery  itself  will  sing,  dashing  in  and  out 
of  these  closes,  careering  over  the  open  ground, 
engaged  in  their  rude  games,  arrayed  in  flying 
drapery,  here  a  leg  out  and  there  an  arm,  are 
crowds  of  children.  Their  thin  faces  tell  how 
111  they  are  fed.  Their  fearful  oaths  tell  how 
ill  they  are  reared.  Yet  the  merry  laugh,  the 
hearty  shout,  and  screams  of  delight,  as  some 
unfortunate  urchin,  at  leap-frog,  measures  his 
length  upon  the  ground,  tell  that  God  made 
childhood, to  be  happy,  and  how  even  misery 
will  forget  itself  in  the  buoyancy  and  vivacity 
of  youth. 

We  get  hold  of  one  of  these  boys.  Poor 
fellow  !  it  is  a  bitter  day  ;  and  he  has  neither 
shoes  nor  stockings.  His  naked  feet  are  red, 
swollen,  cracked,  ulcerated  with  the  cold  ;  a 
thin,  thread-worn  jacket,  with  its  gaping  rents, 
is  all  that  protects  his  breast ;  beneath  his 
shaggy  bush  of  hair  he  shows  a  face  sharp 
with  want,  yet  sharp  also  with  intelligence  be- 
yond his  years.  That  little  fellow  has  learned 
to  be  already  self-supporting.  He  has  studied 
the  arts  ; — ^lie  is  a  master  of  impostui-e.  lying;^ 
2 


14  SEED-TIME    AND   HARVEST  ;    OR, 

begging,  stealing.  Small  blame  to  him,  but 
much  to  those  who  have  neglected  him, — he 
had  otherwise  pined  and  perished.  So  soon 
as  you  have  satisfied  him  that  you  are  not  con- 
nected with  the  police,  you  ask  him,  "  Where 
is  your  father  ?"  Now,  hear  his  story, — and 
there  are  hundreds  can  tell  a  similar  tale. 
"  Where  is  your  father  ?"  "  He  is  dead,  sir." 
"  Where  is  your  mother  ?"  "  Dead,  too." 
"  Where  do  you  stay  ?"  "  Sister  and  T,  and 
my  little  brother,  live  with  granny."  "  What 
is  she  ?"  "  She  is  a  widow  woman."  "  What 
does  she  do  ?"  "  Sells  sticks,  sir."  "  And  can 
she  keep  you  all  ?"  "  No."  "  Then  how  do 
you  live  ?"  "  Go  about  and  get  bits  of  meat, 
sell  matches,  and  sometimes  get  a  trifle  from 
the  carriers  for  running  an  errand."  "  Do 
you  go  to  school  ?"  "  No,  never  was  at  school ; 
attended  sometimes  a  Sabbath-school,  but  have 
not  been  there  for  a  long  time."  "  Do  you  go 
to  church  ?"  "  Never  was  in  a  church."  "  Do 
you  know  who  made  you  ?"  "  Yes,  God  made 
me."  "  Do  you  say  your  prayers  ?"  "  Yes, 
mother  taught  me  a  prayer  before  she  died  ; 


PLEAS  FOR   RAGCxED   SCHOOT.S.  15 

and   I  say  it  to  granny  afore   I  lie  down." 
"  Have  you  a  bed  ?"    "  Some  straw,  sir." 

Our  stranger  friend  is  astonished  at  this,— 
not  we.     Alas !    we  have  ceased  to  be  aston- 
ished  at  any   amount  of   misery  suffered,  or 
suffering,  in  our  overgrown  cities.     You  have, 
says  he,  splendid  hospitals,  where  children  are 
fed,  and  clothed,  and  educated,  whose  parents, 
in  instances  not  a  few,  could  do  all  that  for 
them  ;  you  have  beautiful  schools  for  the  gratis 
education  of  the  children  of  respectable  trades- 
men and  mechanics  :  what  provision  have  you 
made  for  these  children  of  crime,  misery,  and 
misfortune?     Let  us  go  and  see  the  remedy 
which  this  rich,  enlightened.  Christian  city  has 
provided  for  such  a  crying  evil.     We  blush,  as 
we  tell  him  there  is  none.      Let  us   explain 
ourselves.     Such  children  cannot  pay  for  edu- 
cation,  nor  avail  themselves  of  a  gratis  one, 
even  though  offered.     That  urchin  must  beg 
and  steal,  or  he  starves.    With  a  number  like 
liimself,  he  goes  of  a  morning  as  regularly  to 
that  work  as  the  merchant  to  his  shop  or  the 
tradesman  to  his  place  of  labor.     They  are 


16  PKED-TTME  AND   HAEVEST  ;   OR, 

turned  out, — driven  forth  sometimes, — to  get 
their  meat,  like  sheep  to  the  hills,  or  cattle  to 
the  field  ;  and  if  they  don't  bring  home  a  cer- 
tain supply,  a  drunken  father  and  a  brutal 
beating  await  them. 

For  example  :  I  was  returning  from  a  meet- 
ing one  night,  about  twelve  o'clock,  in  a  fierce 
blast  of  wind  and  rain.  In  Princes  street,  a 
shivering  boy  with  a  piteous  voice,  pressed  me 
to  buy  a  tract.  I  asked  the  child  why  he  was 
out  in  such  a  night,  and  at  such  an  hour.  He 
had  not  got  his  money  ;  he  dared  not  go  home 
without  it ;  he  would  rather  sleep  in  a  stair 
all  night.  I  thought,  as  we  passed  a  lamp, 
that  I  had  seen  him  before.  I  asked  him  if  he 
went  to  church.  "  Sometimes  to  Mr.  Guthrie's," 
was  his  reply.  On  looking  again,  I  now  re- 
cognized him  as  one  I  had  occasionally  seen 
in  the  Cowgate  chapel.  Muffled  up  to  meet 
the  weather,  he  did  not  recognize  me.  I  asked 
him  what  his  father  was  ?  "I  have  no  father, 
sir  ;  he  is  dead."  His  mother  ?  "  She  is  very 
poor."  "  But  why  keep  you  out  here  ?"  Then 
reluctantly  thq  truth  came  out.     I  knew  lier 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      17 

well,  and  had  visited  her  wretched  dwelling. 
She  was  a  tall,  dark,  gaunt,  gipsy-looking 
woman,  who,  notwithstanding  a  cap  of  which 
it  could  be  but  premised  that  it  had  once  been 
white,  and  a  gown  that  it  had  once  been  black, 
had  still  some  traces  of  one  who  had  seen  bet- 
ter days  ;  but,  now  she  was  a  drunkard.  Sin 
had  turned  her  into  a  monster  ;  and  she  would 
have  beaten  that  poor  child  within  an  inch  of 
death,  if  he  had  been  short  of  the  money,  by 
her  waste  of  which  she  starved  him,  and  fed 
her  own  accursed  vices. 

Now,  by  this  anecdote  illustrating  to  my 
stranger  friend  the  situation  of  these  unhap- 
py children,  I  added  that,  nevertheless,  they 
might  get  education,  and  secure  some  measure 
both  of  common  and  Christian  knowledge. 
But  mark  how,  and  where.  Not  as  in  the 
days  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  when  the  tender 
motlier  brought  her  child  for  his  blessing. 
The  jailer  brings  them  now.  Their  only  pas- 
sage to  school  is  through  the  Police  Office  ; 
their  passport  is  a  conviction  of  crime ;  and 
in  this  Cliristian  and  enlightened  city  it  is 
2* 


18  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST 


only  within  tlie  dreary  walls  of  a  prison  that 
they   are   secure   either   of   school   or   Bible. 
When  one  thinks  of  their  own  happy  boys  at 
home,  bounding  free  on  the  green,  and  breath- 
ing the  fresh  air  of  heaven, — or  of  the  little 
fellow  that  climbs  a  father's  knee,  and  asks 
the  oft-repeated  story  of  Moses,  or  of  Joseph, — 
it  is  a  sad  thing  to  look  in  through  the  eyelet 
of  a  cell-door,  on  the  weary  solitude  of  a  child 
spelling  its  way  through  the  Bible.     It  makes 
one  sickJ;o  hear  men  sing  the  praises  of  the 
fine  education  of  our  prisons.    How  much  bet- 
ter and  holier  were  it  to  tell  us  of  an  educa- 
tion that  would  save  the  necessity  of  a  prison- 
school  !     I  like  well  to  see  the  life-boat,  with 
her  brave  and  devoted  crew  ;    but  with  far 
more  pleasure,  from  the  window  of  my  old 
country  manse,  I  used  to  look  out  at  the  Bell 
Rock  Tower,  standing  erect  amid  the  stormy 
waters,  where  in  the  mists  of  day  the  bell  was 
rung,  and  in  the  darkness  of  the  night  the  light 
w#as  kindled.     Thus  mariners  were  not  saved 
from  the  wreck,  but  saved  from  being  wrecked 
at  all.     Instead  of  first  punishing  crime,  and 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      19 

then,  through  means  of  a  prison  education, 
trying  to  prevent  its  repetition,  we  appeal  to 
men's  common  sense,  and  common  interest,  to 
humanity,  and  Christianity,  if  it  were  not  bet- 
ter to  support  a  plan  which  would  reverse  this 
process,  and  which  seeks  to  prevent,  that  there 
may  be  no  occasion  to  punish. 

I  may  be  asked,  would  not  this  be  accom- 
plished by  the  existence  and  multiplication  of 
schools,  where,  in  circumstances  of  necessity,  a 
gratis  education  may  be  obtained?  We  an- 
swer, Certainly  not.  Look  how  the  thing 
works,  and  is  working.  You  open  such  a 
school  in  some  poor  locality  of  the  city,  where, 
among  the  more  decent  and  well-provided  chil- 
dren, there  is  a  number  of  shoeless,  shirtless,  cap- 
less,  ragged  boys,  as  wild  as  desert  savages.  The 
great  mass  of  those  in  the  district  you  have 
not  swept  into  yoar  school ;  but,  granting  that 
through  moral  influence,  or  otherwise,  you  do 
succeed  in  bringing  out  a  small  per  centage  of 
these,— mark  what  happens.  In  a  few  days 
this  and  that  one  fail  to  answer  at  roll-call. 
Now,  an  essential  element  in  successful  educa- 


20  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  J   OR, 

tion  is  regular  attendance.  In  truth,  the  world 
would  get  on  as  ill  were  the  sun  to  run  his 
course  to-day,  and  take  a  rest  or  play  the  tru- 
ant to-morrow,  and  be  so  irregular  in  his 
movements  that  no  one  could  count  upon  his 
appearance,  as  will  the  work  of  education 
with  an  attendance  at  school  constantly  bro- 
ken and  interrupted.  Feeling  this,  the  teacher 
Bceks  the  abode  of  the  child,  climbs  some  three 
or  four  dark  stairs,  and  at  length  finds  himself 
in  such  an  apartment  as  we  have  often  seen  ; 
there  is  neither  board,  nor  bed,  nor  Bible. 
Around  the  cinders,  gathered  from  the  street, 
sit  some  half-naked  children, — his  poor  ragged 
pupil  among  the  number.  "  Your  child,"  sayS' 
he  to  the  mother, "  has  been  away  from  school.'' 
Now  let  the  Christian  public  listen  to  her  re- 
ply. "  I  could  not  afford  to  keep  him  there  ; 
he  maun  do  something  for  his  meat."  I  ven- 
ture to  say,  I  confidently  affirm,  that  there  are 
now  many  hundreds  of  cliildren  in  these  cir- 
cumstances in  EdinbTirgh.  I  ask  the  Christian 
publio,  What  are  we  to  do  ?  One  of  two  things 
we  must  do.     Look  at  them.     First,  we  mav 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      21 

leave  the  boy  ^lone.  Begging,  the  trade  in 
which  he  is  engaged,  being  next  neighbor  to 
thieving,  he  soon  steals.  He  is  apprehended 
and  cast  into  prison ;  and  having  been 
marched  along  the  public  street,  shackled  to  a 
policeman,  and  returned  to  society  with  the 
jail-brand  on  his  brow,  any  tattered  shred  of 
character  that  hung  loose  about  him  before  is 
now  lost.  As  the  French  say,  and  all  the 
woi^d  knows,  "  Ce  n'est  que  h  premier  pas  qui 
corde."  He  descends,  from  step  to  step,  till 
a  halter  closes  his  unhappy  career  ;  or,  he  is 
passed  away  to  a  penal  settlement,  the  victim 
of  a  poverty  for  which  he  was  not  to  blame, 
and  of  a  neglect  on  the  part  of  others  for 
which  a  righteous  God  will  one  day  call  them 
to  judgment. 

There  is  another  alternative  ;  and  it  is  that 
we  advocate.  Remove  the  obstruction  which 
stands  between  that  poor  child  and  the  school- 
master and  the  Bible  ;  roll  away  the  stone 
that  lies  between  the  living  and  the  dead. 
Since  he  cannot  attend  your  school  unless  he 
starves,  give  him  food  ;  feed  him,  in  order  to 


22  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST;    OR, 

educate  him  ;  let  it  be  food  -  of  the  plainest 
clieapest  kind  ;  but  by  that  food  open  his  way  ; 
by  that  powerful  magnet  to  a  hungry  child, 
draw  him  to  school. 

Strolling  one  day  with  a  friend  among  the 
romantic  scenery  of  the  crags  and  green  val- 
leys around  Arthur  Seat,  we  came  at  length  to 
St.  Anthony's  Well,  and  sat  down  on  the  great 
%lack  stone  beside  it,  to  have  a  talk  with  the 
ragged  boys  who  pursue  their  calling  there. 
Their  tinnies  were  ready  with  a  draught  of 
the  clear  cold  water,  in  hope  of  a  half-penny. 
We  thought  it  would  be  a  kindness  to  them, 
and  certainly  not  out  of  character  in  us,  to 
tell  them  of  the  living  water  that  springeth  up 
to  life  eternal,  and  of  Him  who  sat  on  the 
stone  of  Jacol)'s  Well,  and  who  stood  in  the 
Temple  and  cried,  "  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him 
come  unto  me  and  drink."  By  way  of  intro- 
duction, we  began  to  question  them  about 
schools.  As  to  the  boys  themselves,  one  was 
fatherless, — the  son  of  a  poor  widow ;  the 
father  of  the  other  was  alive,  but  a  man  of  low 
habits  and  bad  character.     Both  were  poorly 


PLEAS    FOR    RACiOEl)    SCHOOLS.  2H 

clotlied.  The  one  had  never  been  at  school  ; 
the  other  had  sometimes  attended  a  Sabbath- 
school.  These  two  little  fellows  were  self-sup- 
porting,— living  by  such  shifts  as  they  were 
then  engaged  in.  Encouraged  by  the  success 
of  Sheriff  Watson,  who  had  tlie  honor  to  lead 
this  enterprise,  the  idea  of  a  Ragged  School 
was  then  floating  in  my  brain ;  and  so,  with 
reference  to  the  scheme,  and  by  way  of  experi- 
ment, I  said,  "  Would  you  go  to  school,  if,  be- 
sides your  learning,  you  were  to  get  breakfast, 
dinner,  and  supper  there?"  It  would  have 
done  any  man's  heart  good  to  have  seen  the 
flash  of  joy  that  broke  from  the  eyes  of  one  of 
them, — the  flush  of  pleasure  on  his  cheek,  as, 
hearing  of  three  sure  meals  a  day,  the  boy  leapt 
to  his  feet,  and  exclaimed,  "  Aye  will  I,  sir, 
and  bring  the  haill  land^  too  ;"  *  and  then,  as 
if  afraid  I  might  withdraw  what  seemed  to  him 
so  large  and  munificent  an  offer,  he  exclaimed, 
"  I'll  come  for  but  my  dinner,  sir." 

I  have  abundant  statistics  before  me  to  prove 
that  there  are  many  hundreds  of  children  in 

♦  The  whole  tenement 


24 


this  town  in  circumstances  as  hopeless  as  those 
I  describe.  They  must  be  fed,  in  order  to  re- 
ceive that  common  moral  and  religious  edu- 
cation, without  which,  humanly  speaking,  thev 
are  ruined  both  for  this  world  and  the  next. 

How  many  there  are  in  still  more  hopeless 
circumstances  I  never  knew  till  I  had  gone  to 
see  one  of  the  saddest  sights  a  man  could  look 
on.  The  Night  Asylum  was  not  then  estab- 
lished ;  but  the  houseless,  the  inhabitants  of 
arches  and  stair-foots,  those,  like  the  five  boys 
lately  sent  to  prison,  who  had  no  home  but  an 
empty  cellar  in  Shakspeare  Square, — found, 
when  they  sought  it,  or  dared  to  seek  it,  a 
shelter  in  the  Police  Office.  I  had  often  heard 
of  the  misery  it  presented  ;  and,  detained  at  a 
meeting  till  past  midnight,  I  went  with  one  of 
my  elders,  who  was  a  Commissioner  of  Police, 
to  visit  the  scene.  In  a  room,  the  walls  of 
which  were  thickly  hung  with  bunches  of  skel- 
eton keys,  the  dark  lanterns  of  the  thief,  and 
other  instruments  of  housebreaking,  sat  the 
lieutenant  of  the  watch.  Seeing  me  at  that 
untimely  hour,  handed  in  by  one  of  the  Com- 


PLEAS    VOU    K.UJGEl)    SCHOOLS.  25 

iiiissioners,  he  looked  surprise  itself.  Having 
satisfied  him  that  there  was  no  inisdeDioanor, 
we  proceeded,  under  the  charge  of  an  intelli- 
gent officer,  to  visit  the  wards. 

Our  purpose  is  not  to  describe  the  strangest, 
saddest  collection  of  human  misery  I  ever  saw. 
but  to  observe  that  not  a  few  children,  having 
no  home  on  earth,  had  sought  and  found  there 
a  shelter  for  the  night.  "  They  had  not  where 
to  lay  their  head."  Turned  adrift  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  subsisting  as  they  best  could  during 
the  day,  this  wreck  of  society,  like  the  wreck 
of  the  sea-shore,  came  drifting  in  again  at  even- 
ing tide.  After  visiting' a  number  of  wards 
and  cells,  I  remember  looking  down  from  the 
gallery  on  an  open  space,  where  five  or  six  hu- 
man beings  lay  on  the  bare  pa-vement,  buried 
in  slumber  ;  and  right  opposite  the  stove,  with 
its  ruddy  light  shining  full  on  his  face,  lay  a 
poor  child  who  attracted  my  special  attention. 
He  was  miserably  clad  ;  he  seemed  about  eight 
years  old  ;  he  had  the  sweetest  face  1  ever  saw  ; 
his  bed  was  the  hard  stone  pavement ;  his  pil- 
low a  brick  ;  and,  as  he  lay  calm  in  sleep,  for 


26  SEED-TIME    AXD    HARVEST  :    OR, 

getful  of  all  his  sorrows,  he  looked  a  picture 
of  injured  innocence.  His  story,  which  I 
learned  from  the  officer,  was  a  sad  one  ;  but 
one  such  as  too  many  could  tell.  He  had 
neither  father  nor  mother,  brother  nor  friend, 
in  the  wide  world.  His  only  friends  were  the 
Police, — his  only  home  their  office.  How  he 
lived  they  did  not  know  ;  but,  sent  away  in 
the  morning,  he  usually  returned  at  night. 
The  floor  of  a  ward,  the  stone  by  the  stove, 
was  a  better  bed  than  a  stair-foot.  I  could 
not  get  that  boy  out  of  my  head  or  heart  for 
days  and  nights  together.  I  have  often  re- 
gretted til  at  some  effort  was  not  made  to  save 
him.  Some  six  or  seven  years  are  by  and  gone 
since  then  ;  and  before  now,  launched  on  the 
sea  of  liuman  passions,  and  exposed  to  a  thou- 
sand temptations,  he  has  too  probably  become 
a  melancholy  wreck.  What  else  could  any 
man  who  believes  in  the  depravity  of  human 
nature,  and  knows  the  danger  of  the  world, 
expect  him  to  become  ?  These  children,  whom 
we  leave  in  ignorance,  and  starve  into  crime, 
must  grow  up  into   criminals, — the  pest,  the 


PLEAS   FOR   IIA(;CtED   SCHOOLS.  27 

shame,  the  burden,  the  punishment  of  society  ; 
and  in  the  increasing  expenses  of  public  chari- 
ties, work-liouses,  poor-rates,  prisons,  police- 
officers,  and  superior  officers  of  justice,  what 
do  we  see,  but  the  judgments  of  a  righteous 
God,  and  hear,  but  the  echo  of  these  solemn 
words :  "  Be  sure  your  sin  will  find  you  out." 

From  statistics  before  me,  I  repeat  it  again, 
— and  it  ought  to  be  repeated  till  a  remedy  be 
provided, — that  there  are  at  least  a  thousand 
children  in  this  city  (others  say  some  thousands, 
b«it  I  would  rather  understate  than  in  the  least 
exaggerate  the  case)  who  cannot  receive  such 
an  education  as  will  bless  them,  and  make 
them  a  blessing,  unless,  along  with  the  meam 
of  education,  they  are  provided  with  the  meam. 
of  keeping  body  and  soul  together.  Let  the 
Christian  public  observe,  that  while  such 
schools  as  Lady  Effingham's,  Lady  Anderson's, 
and  the  Duchess  of  Gordon's,  and  others  of 
the  same  description,  are  most  creditable  to 
the  large-hearted  benevolence  of  these  orna- 
ments of  the  upper  and  best  friends  of  the 
lower  classes,  and  are  the  means  of  incalcula- 


28  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

ble  good  to  a  low  class,  yet  they  hardly  touch 
that  loivest  class  for  whose  interests  I  have 
stepped  forth  from  my  own  peculiar  walk,  and 
now  venture,  through  the  press,  on  this  appeal. 
The  fact  may  be  doubted  by  some  who  have 
never  left  their  drawing-rooms  to  visit,  like 
angels  of  mercy,  the  abodes  of  misery  and 
crime  ;  but  no  visitor  of  the  Destitute  Sick 
Society, — no  humble  and  hard-T^  irking  city 
missionary, — no  enlightened  governor  of  our 
prisons, — no  superintendent  of  Night  Asylum 
•)r  House  of  Refuge, — none  who,  like  myself, 
has  been  called  on  to  explore,  amid  fever  and 
famine,  the  depths  of  human  misery  in  this 
city,  and  has  come  in  close,  and  painful,  and 
heart-sickening  contact  with  its  crimes  and 
poverty, — I  say,  none  of  these  will  doubt  it, — 
at  least  I  have  met  with  none  who  doubted  it. 
I  implore  the  public  to  remember,  that  we  have 
not  here  the  miserable  consolation  that  tlie  in- 
fected will  die  off.  They  are  mixed  with  so- 
ciety,— each  an  active  centre  of  corruption. 
Around  them  you  can  draw  no  Cordon  Sani- 
taire.      The   leaven   i&   ev3ry   day   leavening 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      29 

more  and  more  of  the  Imnp.  Parents  are  be- 
getting and  bringing  up  children  in  their  own 
image ;  while  ignorance,  and  vice,  and  crime, 
are  shooting  ahead  even  of  the  increase  of  that 
population. 

I  have  long  felt  inclined  to  add  my  experi- 
ence to  that  of  many  benevolent  and  Christian 
men  who  have  gone  before  me,  regarding  the 
deplorable  and  dangerous  state  of  the  class 
who  form  the  substratum  of  society,  the  miser- 
able provision  made  even  for  decent  poverty, 
— for  those  whom  the  hand  of  God  has  smit- 
ten,— and  the  manifold  temptations  the  poor 
are  thereby  exposed  to.  But  the  pressure  of 
other  avocations,  the  difficulty  of  getting  the 
public  ear  in  times,  of  excitement,  and  the  lack 
of  any  approved  remedy  for  the  evil  in  its  first 
causes,  must  explain  my  silence  in  the  past. 

We  had  been  for  some  time  inclined  to  hold 
that  such  a  remedy  was  only  to  be  found  in 
such  schools  as  we  now  propose  ;  but,  till  the 
experience  of  Aberdeen  and  of  Dundee  had 
turned  what  was  but  a  presumption  into  a 
fact,  we  had  not  coura^-e  to  venture  on  the 


30  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST;    OR, 

proposal.  We  see  no  way  of  securing  the 
amelioration  and  salvation  of  these  forlorn, 
outcast,  and  destitute  children,  but  by  making 
their  maintenance  a  bridge  and  stepping-stone 
to  their  education.  It  has  been  tried  and 
proved,  that  without  some  such  instrumental- 
ity you  cannot  get  these  children  to  school ; 
at  least  you  cannot  get  more  than  the  smallest 
percentage  of  them  ;  and  though  you  could, — 
though  you  got  the  hungry,  shivering  creature 
into  your  class, — what  heart  has  he  for  learn- 
ing, Avhose  pale  face  and  hollow  eyes  tell 
you  he  is  starving?  Wliat  teacher  could 
have  the  heart  to  punish  a  child  who  has 
not  broken  his  fast  that  day  ?  What  man  of 
sense  would  mock  with  books  a  boy  who  is 
starving  for  bread?  Let  Christian  men  an- 
swer our  Lord's  question  ;  let  every  parent 
think  of  it : — "  What  father,  if  his  child  asked 
for  bread,  would  give  him  a  stone?"  And 
what  is  English  grammar,  or  the  Rule  of 
Three,  or  the  A,  B,  C,  to  a  hungry  child,  but 
a  stone  ? 

I  have  often  met  this  difficulty  in  dealing 


PLEAS  FOR   RAGGED   SCHOOLS.  31 

with  the  grown  up,  who  possessed  what  the 
child  does  not, — sense  to  understand  the  im- 
portance of  the  lesson.  I  have  seen  it  in  a 
way  not  to  be  forgotten.  In  the  depth  of  a 
hard  winter,  when  visiting  in  the  Cowgate,  I 
entered  a  room  where,  save  a  broken  table, 
there  was  nought  of  furniture  but  a  crazy  bed- 
stead, on  which,  beneath  a  thin  ragged  cover- 
let, lay  a  very  old,  grey-headed  woman.  I  be- 
gan to  speak  to  her,  as  to  one  near  eternity, 
about  her  soul ;  on  which,  raising  herself  up, 
and  stretching  out  a  bare,  withered  arm,  she 
cried  most  piteously,  "  I  am  cauld  and  hungry.'^ 
"  My  poor  old  friend,"  I  said,  "  we  will  dc 
what  we  can  to  relieve  these  wants ;  but  let 
me  in  kindness  remind  you  that  there  is  some 
thing  worse  than  either  cold  or  hunger.' 
"Aye,  but,  sir,"  was  the  reply,  "  if  ye  were  as 
cauld  and  as  hungry  as  I  am,  ye  could  think  o' 
naething  else."  She  read  me  a  lesson  that 
day  which  I  have  never  forgotten  ;  and  which, 
.IS  the  advocate  of  these  poor  forlorn  children, 
I  ask  a  humane  and  Christian  public  to  apply 
to  thoir  case.  The  public  may  plant  schools  thick 


32  SEED-TIME   .\XD    HARVEST,   OR, 

as  trees  of  tlie  forest ;  but  be  assured,  unless, 
besides  being  trees  of  knowledge, — to  borrow 
a  figure  from  the  isles  of  the  Pacific, — they  are 
also  bread-fruit  trees,  few  of  these  children  will 
seek  their  shadow,  far  less  sit  under  it  with 
great  delight. 

Is  any  one  so  ignorant  of  human  nature  as 
to  suppose  that,  offered  nothing  but  learning, 
these  destitute  children  may  be  brought  to 
school  by  the  mere  power  of  moral  suasion  ? 
I  would  like  to  know  how  many  of  the  well 
fed,  well-clothed,  well-disciplined  children,  who 
crowd  our  schools,  would  prefer  the  school- 
room to  the  play-ground,  unless  their  parents 
compelled  tlieir  attendance  ?  It  may  be  an- 
swered. Try  the  power  of  moral  suasion  on  the 
parents.  Now,  tn  e  put  it  to  any  reasonable  man, 
if  it  be  not  true,  tliat  to  expect  an  abandoned, 
drunken  ruffian, — a  miserable,  ignorant,  pover- 
ty-struck widow,  whose  powers,  botli  of  body 
and  mind,  griei  and  want  have  paralyzed, — 
those  who  themselves  are  strangers  to  tlie  bene- 
fits of  education,  —who  are  living  without  God 
and  without  liope  in  tlie  world, — wlio  are  part- 


PLEAS  FOB  BAGGED  SCHOOLS.      38 

ly  dependent  for  their  own  stinted  subsistence, 
and,  in  too  many  instances,  the  feeding  of  their 
vices,  on  the  fruits  of  their  children's  plunder 
or  begging, — we  ask,  if  to  expect  that  such 
will  compel  their  children  to  attend  school,  is 
not  seeking  for  grapes  on  thorns,  or  figs  on 
thistles  ? 

We  have  already  indicated  how  we  propose 
to  meet  these  difficulties  :  let  us  be  a  little 
more  explicit.  What  we  then  propose  to  do, 
with  the  intent  of  meetiug,  and  the  confidence 
of  overcoming,  difficulties  never  yet  fairly 
grappled  with,  and,  with  God's  blessing,  of  en- 
grafting on  the  fair  stock  of  civilization  and 
Christianity  these  wild  vines,  so  that  they  shall 
yield  the  wine  which  is  pleasant  both  to  God 
and  man,  is  this  :  in  place  of  one  great  insti- 
tution, which  would  be  attended  by  many  dis- 
advantages, let  there  be  an  adequate  number 
of  schools  set  down  in  the  different  districts 
of  the  city,  so  that  each  school  shall  contain 
no  more  than  a  manageable  number  of  chil- 
dren,— not  more  than  a  teacher  can  thorough- 
ly control  and  break  in.     These  Arabs  of  the 


34  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

city  are  wild  as  those  of  the  desert,  and  mnsi 
be  broken  into  three  habits, — those  of  disci 
pline,  learning,  and  industry,  not  to  speak  of 
cleanliness.  To  accomplish  this,  our  trust  is 
in  the  almost  omnipotent  power  of  Christian 
kindness.  Hard  words  and  harder  blows  are 
thrown  away  here.  With  these,  alas !  they 
are  too  familiar  at  home,  and  have  learned  to 
be  as  indifferent  to  them  as  the  smith's  dog  to 
the  shower  of  sparks.  And  without  entering 
into  many  details,  it  may  be  enough  to  say 
that  in  the  morning  they  are  to  break  their  fast 
on  a  diet  of  the  plainest  fare, — then  march  from 
their  meal  to  their  books  ;  in  the  afternoon 
they  are  again  to  be  provided  with  a  dinnei 
of  the  cheapest  kind, — then  back  again  tc 
school  ;  from  which,  after  supper,  they  return, 
not  to  the  walls  of  a  hospital,  but  to  their 
own  home.  There,  carrying  with  them  many 
a  holy  lesson,  they  may  prove  Christian  mis- 
sionaries to  these  dwellings  of  darkness  and 
sin.  This  is  no  vain  expectation.  Our  confi- 
dence is  in  Him  who  has  said,  "  Out  of  the 
mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings  He  ordaineth 


PLEAS  FOn  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.       35 

strength.''  And  we  are  all  the  more  confident 
of  his  blessing,  because  we  are  in  this  the  best 
way  fulfilling  the  duty  laid  on  us  in  his  promise 
to  the  forlorn, — "  When  thy  father  and  thy 
mother  forsake  thee,  then  the  Lord  will  take 
thee  up."  A  faithful  God,  He  does  not  this 
by  way  of  miracle,  but  by  way  of  means  ;  put- 
ting it  into  the  hearts  of  kind  and  Christian 
people  to  do  a  father's  and  a  mother's  part  to 
those  who  are  fatherless  and  motherless,  or  to 
those  still  more  unhappy  children  who  have 
parents,  but  would  be  better  without  them. 

To  work  this  scheme  to  its  greatest  advan- 
tage and  capability  of  good,  we  would  strong- 
ly recommend  the  adoption  of  some  such  plan 
as  this  :  In  place  of  benevolent  individuals 
contenting  themselves  with  subscribing  to  its 
funds,  and  taking  no  further  interest  in  the 
welfare  of  its  objects,  let  each  select  one  child 
or  more,  as  his  means  may  warrant, — say  one 
child.  The  expenses  of  its  education  and  main- 
tenance at  school  are  met  by  him  :  this  is  known 
to  the  child  ;  and  thus,  taught  to  regard  him 
as  its  benefactor,  the  better  and  kindlier  feel- 


36 


ings  of  its  nature  are  brought  into  activity, 
and  nurtured  into  strength.  Within  the  arms 
of  his  gratitude  man  can  embrace  a  benevolent 
individual,  but  not  a  benevolent  community. 
What  pauper  ever  left  a  charity  workhouse 
with  a  blessing  on  its  Directors  ?  But  indi- 
vidual charity  has  been  remembered  in  the 
widow's  prayer  ;  and  some  have  walked  our 
streets  who  could  say  with  the  patriarch, 
"  When  the  eye  saw  me,  then  it  blessed  me." 
We  attach  the  utmost  importance  to  this  plan. 
By  means  of  it,  the  person  through  whose 
kindness  the  child  is  placed  and  paid  for  at 
school,  —  who  comes  there  occasionally  to 
watch  the  progress  of  a  plant  which  he  had 
found  flung  on  the  highway,  to  be  trodden  un- 
der foot,  but  which  he  has  transplanted  into 
this  nursery  of  good, — becomes  an  object  of 
kindly  regard  to  the  child.  The  boy  fears 
his  displeasure,  and  aims  at  his  approbation. 
Kindness  softens  the  child's  heart  ;  his  love 
and  gratitude  are  kindled  ;  and  so  we  call  in 
the  most  effectual  allies  in  our  effoi-t  to  save 
him  from  ruin.     In  thi?   wav.  moreover,  tlio 


PLEAS   FOR    RAGCxED   SCHOOLS.  37 

child  has  secured  a  patron  and  protector, — one 
to  take  him  by  the  hand  when  his  term  at 
school  is  closed,  and  to  stand  by  him  in  the 
battle  of  life.  Selecting  a  boy  in  whom  we 
have  learned  to  take  a  kindly  interest,  we  will 
feel  it  to  be  our  business  to  guide  him,  by  our 
counsel  and  influence,  into  some  way  of  well- 
doing. We  will  charge  ourselves  with  his 
welfare.  He  will  not  have  to  complain, — "  No 
man  careth  for  my  soul."  And  thus  through  the 
influence  of  kindly  feelings  on  his  part,  and 
Christian  care  on  ours,  in  many  a  now  unhappy 
child  society  might  gain  a  useful  member,  in- 
stead of  receiving  an  Ishmaelite,  "  whose  hand 
is  against  every  man,  and  every  man's  hand 
against  him." 

Ou  the  management  of  these  schools  we 
have  only  to  add,  that  alongside  a  common 
and  Christian  education,  we  will  introduce 
such  work  as  may  suit  the  age  of  the  children, 
and  their  condition  in  life,  with  the  double  ad- 
vantage of  lessening,  by  its  profits,  the  ex- 
pense of  maintenance,  and  forming  in  the  chil- 
dren habits  of  industry,  which  will  fit  them  for 
4 


38  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

an  honest  and  useful  life.  And  thus,  through 
these  schools,  heaven  smiling  upon  them,  we 
will  be  able  to  address  these  children  in  the 
language  of  God  to  the  patriarch, — "  I  will 
bless  thee,  and  make  thee  a  blessing." 

We  know  no  solid  objection  to  which  our 
scheme  is  open.  Not  that  we  mean  to  say  it 
will  prove  a  good  without  any  mixture  of 
evil,  or  that  it  cannot  by  any  possibility  be 
abused ;  but  only  that,  if  these  are  objec- 
tions, they  are  objections  to  which  the  best 
and  noblest  schemes  of  Christian  benevolence 
are  exposed.  However,  our  extreme  anxiety 
for  the  success  of  this  scheme  leads  us  to  ad- 
dress ourselves  to  some  objections  that  may  be 
conjured  up  against  it. 

Now,  we  beg,  in  the  first  place,  to  observe, 
that  this  is  no  scheme  to  relieve  those  whose 
vices  have  brought  them  to  ruin,  or  whose  in- 
dolence keeps  them  in  poverty  We  fully 
accord  with  this  sentiment  of  the  apostle,  "  He 
that  will  not  work  should  not  eat."  This  ig 
both  the  judgment  of  Scripture  and  of  reason. 
In  very  mercy  to  this  world,  God  has  linked 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      39 

crime  and  suffering  together  ;  and  it  is  a  short- 
sighted benevolence  which,  interfering  with 
that  law  of  Providence,  attempts  to  dissolve 
the  connection.  Let  guilty  parents  suffer 
They  have  eaten  sour  grapes, — let  their  teeth 
be  set  on  edge.  But  has  not  God  said,  "  What 
mean  ye,  that  ye  use  this  proverb  concerning 
the  land  of  Israel,  saying,  the  fathers  have 
eaten  sour  grapes,  and  the  children's  teeth  are 
set  on  edge  ?  As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord  God, 
ye  shall  not  have  occasion  any  more  to  use 
this  proverb  in  Israel."  And  the  question 
which  we  put  to  a  humane  and  Christian  pub 
lie  is  this  :  Are  we,  without  any  efficieni 
effort  to  save  their  innocent  and  helpless  off 
spring,  to  allow  these  guilty  parents  to  draw 
them  down'into  the  same  gulf  with  themselves  ? 
We  do  not  propose  to  contaminate  our  hospi- 
tals with  such  children.  Surely  it  would  be 
one  thing  to  rear  the  children  of  the  wicked  in 
affluence — to  provide  them  with  a  ^nished 
education — to  house  them  in  s.plendid  palaces  ; 
and  another  thing  to  save  them  from  the  pangs 
of  hunge",  and  from  the  crimes  to  which  hun- 


40  SEED-TIME   AND   HARVEST  ;    OR, 

ger  tempts  and  drives  them ;  to  bless  them 
with  a  simple  education,  by  which  they  might 
live  decently  in  this  world,  and  be  taught  the 
way  to  a  ])etter.  Let  me  put  a  case !  In  the 
College  Wynd  of  the  old  Greyfriars'  parish,  I 
found  a  mother,  with  some  three  young  chil- 
dren by  her  side,  and  a  pale,  sickly  infant  in 
her  arms.  She  was  a  drunkard.  But  there 
was  no  bed  there,  save  some  straw  ;  there  was 
no  fire,  save  some  smouldering  cinders  ;  there 
was  not  a  morsel  of  bread  in  the  house.  I 
learnt  this  from  being  constantly  interrupted, 
while  speaking  to  her,  by  the  misei'tible  object 
in  her  arms  incessantly  saying  something  to  its 
mother.  On  asking  what  it  said,  she  burst 
into  tears,  and  told  me  it  was  asking  for  bread 
and  she  had  none  to  give  it.  They  had  not 
broken  their  fast  that  day  ;  and  it  was  now 
past  noon.  Fresh  from  a  happy  country  par- 
ish, I  was  horrified  at  such  a  scene  ;  and  sent 
out  for  a  loaf.  They  fell  on  it  like  ravenous 
beasts.  Now,  the  question  I  ask,  and  to  which 
I  crave  an  answer,  is  this :  Should  I  have 
left  these  children  to  die  of  hunger,  because 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGOED  SCHOOLS.      41 

their  motlier  was  a  drunkard?  If  not,— if 
what  I  did  was  rather  to  be  commended  than 
condemned, — how  ought  this  scheme  to  com- 
mend itself  to  the  zealous  support  of  Christian 
men  ?  That  food,  perhaps,  served  to  spin  out 
for  but  a  little  while  their  feeble  thread  of  life  : 
it  secured  to  them  no  permanent  benefit.  But 
let  the  public  observe,  that  the  charity  given 
in  the  way  we  plead  for  does  what  common 
charity  does  not ;— it  secures  for  every  child 
whose  hunger  it  allays,  and  whose  life  it  saves, 
the  blessings  of  a  common  and  a  Christian 
education. 

We  can  fancy  some  people  being  at  first 
sight  alarmed  at  our  scheme,  as  one  which  will 
entail  additional  burdens  on  the  public.  Grant 
that  it  did  : — the  benefit  would  more  than  com- 
pensate for  the  burden.  "There  is  he  that 
scattereth  and  yet  increaseth  ; "  and,— never 
were  the  words  more  applicable, — ''  there  is  ho 
that  withholdeth  the  hand,  and  it  tendeth  to 
poverty.''  But  it  is  not  thus  that  we  meet  the 
objection.  We  meet  it  fairly  in  the  face.  Wc 
deny  that  any  additional  burden  wortli  men- 
4* 


42  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OB, 

tioiiing  will  press  on  the  public.  Do  you 
fancy  tliat,  by  rejecting  this  appeal,  and  refus- 
ing to  establish  these  schools,  you,  the  public, 
will  be  saved  the  expense  of  maintaining  these 
outcasts  ?  A  great  and  demonstrable  mistake. 
They  live  just  now ;  and  how  do  they  live  ? 
Not  by  their  own  honest  industry,  but  at  your 
expense.  They  beg  and  steal  for  themselves  ; 
or  their  parents  beg  and  steal  for  them.  You 
are  not  relieved  of  the  expense  of  their  suste- 
nance by  refusing  my  plea.  The  Old  Man  of 
the  Sea  sticks  to  the  back  of  Sinbad.  Surely 
it  were  better  for  Sinbad  to  teach  the  old  man 
to  walk  on  his  own  feet.  I  pray  the  public  to 
remember,  that  begging  and  stealing,  while  in 
most  cases  poor  trades  to  those  who  pursue 
them,  are  dear  ones  to  the  public.  A  friend 
just  now  tells  me  of  an  old  beggar,  accom- 
plished in  his  vocation,  who  used  to  lament 
over  the  degeneracy  of  the  age,  saying,  that 
"  men  nowadays  didna  ken  how  to  beg  ;  that 
Kelso  iveel  beggit  was  worth  fifteen  shillings 
ony  day."  These  beggars  that  you  are  breed- 
ing on  the  body  politic  are  costly  as  well  as 


PL15AS   FOR   RAGGED    SCHOOLS.  43 

troublesome  members  of  society.    Catch  yon 
little  fellow,  with  his  pale  face  and  piteous 
whine,  and  search,  as  some  of  us  have  done, 
his  wallets.     You  will  be  astonished   at  the 
stores  of  beef  and  bread  concealed  beneath 
his  rags.     Don't  blame  him,  however,  because 
he  whines  on ;— he   must  reach   his   den   at 
night,  laden  like  a  bee  with  plunder.     You 
forget  that  a  sound  beating  may  await  him  if 
he  returns  empty-handed  ;  for  he  has  to  keep 
his  mother  in  whisky,  as  well  as  his  brothers 
and  sisters  in  food.     You  have  often  tried  to 
put  down  public  begging,  the  dearest  and  most 
vicious  way  of  maintaining  the  poor  ;  but  till 
some  such  plan  as  ours  is  adopted,  you  never 
can.     Not  to  speak  of  the  beggars  that  prowl 
about  our  streets,  hundreds  of  children  set  out 
every  morning  to  levy  their  subsistence  for  the 
day,  by  calls  at  private  houses.      They  beg 
when   they  may  :  they  steal  when   they  can. 
Is  not  such  a  system  a  disgrace  to  society  ? 
Its  evils  are  legion  :  and  I  can  fancy  no  plan 
that  goes  so  directly,  and  with  such  sure  prom- 
ise of  success,  to  the  root  of  these  evils,  as  that 


44  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST  :   OR, 

I  advocate.  We  say  with  Daniel  Defoe,  tliat 
begging  is  a  sliame  to  any  country  :  if  the  beg- 
gar is  an  unworthy  object  of  charity,  it  is  a 
shame  that  he  should  be  alloived  to  beg  ;  if  a 
worthy  object  of  charity,  it  is  a  shame  that  he 
should  be  compelled  to  beg. 

We  can  again  fancy  some  filled  with  fear 
lest  such  institutions  should  prove  "  a  bounty 
on  indolence,  improvidence,  and  dissipation." 
We  might  answer,  that  the  same  objection  may 
be  urged  against  all  charity ;  and  that  unless 
we  are  prepared  to  run  some  risk,  we  shall 
never  either  obey  the  command  of  God  to  feed 
the  hungry  and  clothe  the  naked,  or  yield  to 
the  better  feelings  of  our  nature.  But  let  us 
look  more  directly  at  this  objection.  We  are 
ready  to  meet  it.  Grant  that  the  scheme  were 
to  act  so  in  some  cases  on  the  parents  ;  still 
the  good  more  than  counterbalances  the  evil. 
You  are  employing  the  only  means  whereby 
the  children  can  be  saved  from  habits  of  "  in- 
dolence, improvidence,  and  dissipation."  Sup- 
pose a  man  already  indolent,  improvidtnt,  and 
dissipated,  to  have  four  children  ;  without  this 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      45 

instituti(»n  these  grow  up  in  their  father's  im- 
age. And  what  happens?  Let  the  public 
observe  what  happens.  The  evil  is  multiplied 
fourfold.  These  four,  again,  become  in  course 
of  time  heads  of  families, — say  each  the  parent 
of  four  children.  And  what  happens  now? 
The  evil  by  this  time  is  multiplied  sixteenfold  ; 
and  so  it  rolls  on  and  deepens,  like  the  waters 
of  the  prophet's  vision  :  first  reaching  the  an- 
kle, then  rising  to  the  knee,  then  to  the  loins  ; 
and  by  and  by  "  it  is  a  river  that  cannot  be 
passed  over — waters  to  swim  in."  How  easily 
and  successfully  the  child  is  trained  to  the  vices 
of  the  man,  we  have  had  abundant  evidence. 
We  have  heard  a  little  child  of  eight  years  of 
age  confess  that  he  had  been  carried  home  in- 
toxicated ;  and  when  he  gaily  and  glibly  told 
tliis  story  of  early  dissipation,  it  only  called 
forth  the  merriment  of  the  ragged  urchins 
around.  The  sucking  babe  is  drugged  with 
opium  ;  and  spirits  are  administered  to  allay 
the  cravings  of  hunger.  When  examined  on 
the  state  of  her  school,  an  excellent  female 
teacher  in  this  town  acknowledged  to  us  that 


46  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ,    OR, 

she  had  often  been  obliged  from  her  own  small 
salary  to  supply  the  wants  of  her  hungry  schol- 
ars. She  had  not  the  heart  to  offer  the  letters 
to  a  child  who  had  got  no  breakfast ;  and 
some  days  ago,  smelling  spirits  from  a  fine  lit 
tie  girl,  she  drew  from  her  this  miserable  con 
fission,  that  her  only  dinner  had  been  the  half 
of  a  biscuit  and  a  little  whisky.  How  early 
this  hapless  class  are  initiated  in  the  use  of 
spirits,  came  out  the  other  day,  to  the  aston- 
ishment of  a  friend  of  ours.  While  walking 
along  the  streets,  she  observed  some  boys  and 
girls  clustered  like  bees  on  and  around  a  bar- 
rel. She  asked  them  if  it  was  a  sugar  barrel  ; 
and  on  learning  that  it  was  a  spirit  one,  she 
said,  "  You  surely  don't  like  whiskey  ?"  "  Foi 
my  i)airt,  mem,"  says  one,  a  little  girl, — think- 
ing, perhaps,  thereby  to  recommend  herself, — 
"  'deed,  mem,  for  my  pairt  I  prefer  the  strong- 
ale."  In  sober  sadness  we  ask,  is  it  not  worth 
running  some  risk  to  cure  such  evils — such  a 
moral  gangrene — as  facts  like  these  disclose  ? 
But  grant,  again,  that  the  dissipated  father, 
because  he  sees  his  poor  children  fed,  educated, 


PLEAS  FOR  ra(;c;ei)  schools.  41 

and  disciplined  at  your  expense,  and  not  his 
own,  is  thereby  encouraged  in  habits  of  vice. 
What  happens  ?  If  his  children  are  saved  by 
this  institution  (and,  remember,  they  cannot  be 
saved  without  it),  at  his  death  society  suffers 
no  longer.  The  evil  ceases  with  himself ;  and, 
instead  of  extending  along  the  line  of  his  pos- 
terity, and  multiplying  Avith  their  multiplica- 
tion, it  is  buried  in  the  drunkard's  grave. 

That  any  decent,  sober,  church-going,  affec- 
tionate father,  who  is  at  present  educating  and 
honestly  maintaining  his  family,  will  cease  to 
work  and  take  to  drinking,  because  he  will 
get  the  children  whom  he  loves,  and  for  whom 
he  loves  to  labor,  educated  and  fed  in  such  a 
school  as  we  suggest,  along  with  the  sweepings 
of  the  neighborhood,  is  an  idea  too  absurd  to 
be  entertained  by  any  reasonable  man.  It  were 
waste  of  time,  paper,  and  public  patience, 
to  answer  an  objection  so  utterly  repugnant  to 
human  nature,  and  contrary  to  all  experience. 

But  I  am  not  content  simply  to  repel  the 
objection,  and  show  that  such  an  institution 
will  prove  no  bounty  on  indolence,  improvi- 


48  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST  ;   OR, 

dence  and  dissipation.  I  believe  the  truth  lies 
altogether  the  other  way ;  and  having  had 
more  to  do  than  many  with  the  victims  of  these 
vices,  I  may  be  permitted  to  express  my  thor- 
ough conviction  that  the  uncared-for  and  des- 
perate circumstances  of  the  poor  often  prove 
strong  temptations  to  the  waste  that  leads  to 
want.  They  are  helpless  because  they  are 
hopeless.  It  is  after  they  get  desperate  that 
they  get  dissipated.  Man  thirsts  for  happi- 
ness ;  and  when  everything  in  his  neglected, 
and  unpitied,  and  unhelped  sorrows  is  calcu- 
lated to  make  him  miserable,  lie  seeks  visions 
of  bliss  in  the  day-dreams  of  intoxication  ;  and 
from  the  horrors  that  follow  on  excess  he  flies 
again  to  the  arms  of  the  enchanter.  The  in- 
toxicating cup  brings, — what  he  never  haw 
without  it, — though  a  passing,  still  a  present 
feeling  of  joy  and  comfort.  Of  course,  I  here 
speak  of  one  who  is  a  stranger  to  the  consola- 
tions of  religion,  and  the  faith  of  him  who 
said,  "  Though  the  fig-tree  should  not  blossom, 
and  there  be  no  fruit  in  the  vine,  I  will  rejoice 
in  the  Lord,  and  joy  in  the  God  of  my  salva- 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.       49 

tion."  It  is  easy  for  tliose  wlio  walk  through 
the  world  rolled  in  flannels  and  cased  in  good 
broadcloth, — who  sit  down  every  day  to  a 
sumptuous,  at  least  a  comfortable  dinner, — 
who  have  never  had  to  sing  a  hungry  child  to 
sleep,  nor  to  pawn  tlieir  Bible  to  buy  bread, — 
it  is  very  easy  for  such  to  wonder  why  the 
poor,  who  should  be  so  careful,  are  often  so 
wasteful.  "  What  have  they  to  do  with 
drink  ?"  it  is  said  ;  "  what  temptation  have 
they  to  drink  ?"  I  pray  them, — not  that  I  de- 
fend the  thing,  but  detest  it, — but  I  pray  them 
to  hear  the  testimony  of  one  who  knew  human 
nature  well.  The  Laird*  and  Maggie  are 
haggling  about  a  fish  bargain. 

"  '  I'll  gie  them,'  says  Maggie,  '  and — and — 
and — half  a  dozen  o'  partans  to  mak'  the  sauce, 
for  three  shillings  and  a  dram.' 

"  '  Half  a  crown  then,  Maggie,  and  a  dram/ 
replies  the  Laird. 

"  'Aweel,  your  honor  maun  hae't  your  aiu 
gate,  nae  doubt ;  but  a  dram's  worth  siller 
now, — the  distilleries  is  no  working.' 

'  Antiquary. 


50  SEED-TIME    AXD    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

"  'And  I  hope  they'll  never  work  again  in 
my  time,'  said  Oldbuck. 

"  'Ay,  ay,  its  easy  for  your  honor,  and  the 
like  o'  you  gentle  folks,  to  say  sae,  that  hae 
stouth  and  routh,  and  fire  and  fending,  and 
meat  and  claith,  and  sit  dry  and  canny  by  the 
fireside  ;  but  an  ye  ^Yanted  fire,  and  meat,  and 
dry  claise,  and  were  deeing  o'  cauld,  and  had 
a  sair  heart, — whilk  is  warst  ava, — wi'  just 
tippence  in  your  pouch, — wadna  ye  be  glad  to 
buy  a  dram  wi't,  to  be  eliding  and  claise,  and 
a  supper  and  heart's  ease  into  the  bargain,  till 
the  morn's  morning  ?'  " 

There  is  a  world  of  melancholy  truth  in  thia 
description. 

I  quote  the  above  as  the  testimony  of  a  man 
who  had  studied  human  nature  :  and  I  now 
quote  what  follows,  as  the  inspired  words  of 
one  whose  Proverbs  contain  the  most  remark- 
able record  of  practical  observation  and  every- 
day wisdom  that  the  world  contains.  What 
says  Solomon  ?  •'  The  destruction  of  the  poor 
is  their  poverty.'  He  saw  the  connection  be- 
tween desperate  circumstances  and  dissipated 


PLEAS   FOR   RAGGED   SCHOOLS.  51 

habits  ;  and  elsewhere  he  says,  "  Let  Mm  drink 
to  forget  his  poverty  and  remember  his  misery 
no  more."  The  truth  is,  that  a  poor  widow, 
with  a  babe  at  her  breast,  with  three  children 
at  her  side,  and  with  only  a  sixpence  a  week 
allowed  for  each,  to  meet  therewith  the  cost 
of  food,  fuel,  house-rent,  clothes,  and  education, 
is  often  driven  to  desperation.  She  struggles 
on  for  a  while ;  and,  turning  into  temporary 
floats,  by  the  help  of  the  pawnbroker,  this  arti- 
cle and  that,  with  her  children  hanging  on  her, 
slie  keeps  her  head  awhile  to  the  stream.  At 
length,  having  taken  her  last  decent  bit  of  fur- 
niture or  dress  to  the  pawn,  she  can  contest  it 
no  longer.  She  loses  heart.  Seeing  no  hope, 
she  seeks  to  drown  in  drink  the  consciousness 
of  her  misery,  and  is  borne  down  the  flood  of 
ruin.  If  you  cannot  understand  this  tempta- 
tion, I  will  help  you  to  do  so.  Look  at  that 
door,  where  an  officer  stands  with  a  sword  in 
one  hand  and  a  finger  of  the  other  on  the  trig- 
ger pf  a  pistol !  Who  and  what  are  these  des- 
perate and  haggard  men  that  press  in  upon 
him  ?    A  band  of  pirates  who  have  boarded 


52  SEED-TIME    AXD    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

his  ship?  Does  he  stand  there  to  guard  its 
freight  of  gold  ?  No,  he  guards  its  spirit-room. 
Six  daj's  ago  the  sea  was  calm, — hope  was 
bright  as  heaven, — the  good  ship  bounded  over 
the  billows, — and  not  a  man  of  that  band  but 
he  had  only  to  say  to  him,  "Go,  and  he  goeth/' 
But  the  storm  came,  and  the  sails  flew  into  rib- 
bons, and  the  masts  went  by  the  board,  and 
the  seams  gaped  to  the  sea,  and  the  pumps 
were  choked,  and  the  vessel  now  lies  water- 
logged. The  men  have  strained  their  eyes  for 
a  sail  on  the  wide  round  of  waters,  and  have 
ceased  to  hope.  The  cry  has  been  raised,  "  To 
the  spirit-room !"  and  by  this  time  they  had 
drowned  their  sorrows  in  intoxication,  but 
that  that  calm,  determined  man  stands  there, 
and  having  drawn  a  chalk-line  across  the  pas- 
sage, assures  them  he  vull  cut  down  the  first 
that  attempts  to  cross. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  say  a  word  in  defence 
of  a  crime  which  is  the  curse  of  our  people,  the 
shame  of  our  country,  and  the  blot  of  our 
churches.  But  don't  deceive  yourselves  ;  you 
will  never  starve  men  into  sobriety.     No  ;  but 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.       53 

you  can  starve  many  into  drunkenness.  One 
demon  never  cast  out  another  ;  althougli  some 
seem  to  know  as  little  of  human  nature  as  did 
tlie  Jews  of  old,  when  they  blasphemously  said 
of  our  Divine  Redeemer,  "  He  casteth  out  dev- 
ils by  Beelzebub,  the  prince  of  devils."  I  have 
seen  and  admired  the  efforts  which  the  poor 
put  forth  when  a  ray  of  hope  breaks  through 
the  gloom  ;  and,  instead  of  aggravating  the 
evils  of  dissipation,  I  am  confident  that  the 
hope  which  such  an  institution  would  shed  on 
the  gloomy  prospects  of  many  a  forlorn  family, 
would  help  to  charm  and  chase  the  demon 
away.  It  would  make  the  widow's  heart  sing 
for  joy.  It  would  keep  up  her  sinking  head, 
— to  see  that  now  her  poor,  dear  children  had 
the  prospect  of  being  saved.  It  would  have 
the  same  effect  on  her  as  the  cry  of  "  A  sail !" 
has  had  on  the  mutinous  crew,  when,  in  that 
blessed  sight  and  blessed  sound,  Hope  boards 
the  sinking  ship.  They  return  once  more  to 
their  right  mind,  and  now  strain  every  nerve 
to  keep  themselves  afloat. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  at  this  moment  ma- 
5* 


54  SEED-TIME   AXD    HARVEST  J    OR, 

11 V  of  our  poor  are  miserably  provided  for  : 
and,  let  me  ask,  how  could  an  addition  be  so  well 
or  wisely  made  to  their  wretched  pittance,  as 
l3y  securing  for.their  children  such  an  education, 
as  with  the  blessing  of  God,  would  train  them 
up  into  honest  and  useful  members  of  society  ? 
The  present  system  is  vicious  and  defective. 
If  the  State  or  society  is  bound  to  maintain 
<;he  children  of  the  destitute,  it  is  bound  to  do, 
what  it  does  not, — educate  them  also.  It  pre- 
tends to  do  the  first, — to  a  large  extent  it  does 
not  even  pretend  to  do  the  second.  By  our 
scheme  both  would  be  done.  If  parents  and  oth- 
ers are  inclined  to  abuse  our  diarity,  and  make 
it  minister  to  their  own  vices,  instead  of  theii 
children's  maintenance,  this  scheme  goes  like 
a  knife  to  the  root  of  that  evil.  The  children, 
— the  innocent  suflerers,  those  who,  in  the  case 
of  dissipated  parents,  become  all  the  more  ob- 
jects of  Christian  pity, — are,  in  the  institu- 
tions we  plead  for,  made  sure  of  food,  knowl- 
edge, habits  of  discipline  and  industry  ;  in 
short,  they  are  placed  beyond  the  reach  of 
theiT  parents'  rapacity.     The  principle  of  our 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      55 

scheme  lies  here  :  we  feed  in  ordea-  to  educate ; 


just  because  we  believe  that  if  you  seek  the 
good  of  the  individual  child,'  the  benefit  of  so- 
ciety, and  the  glory  of  God,  it  is  better  to  pay 
for  the  education  of  the  boy,  than  for  the  pun- 
ishment of  the  man. 

We  never  could  clearly  see  our  way  to  the 
justice  which  punishes  the  child,  in  cases  when 
it  may  be  truly  said,  that  he  has  less  sinned 
than  been  sinned  against.  We  are  confident 
that  the  sentence  which  condemns  is  often 
wrung  from  reluctant  judges.  I  cannot  trans- 
fer to  paper  the  touching  description  of  a  trial 
I  heard  from  my  friend  Mr.  Lothian,  Procura- 
tor-Fiscal for  the  county  of  Edinburgh.  On 
the  occasion  I  allude  to,  he  was  the  advocate 
of  a  boy  who  was  charged  with  theft.  The 
prisoner  was  a  mere  child.  When  he  stood 
up,  the  crown  of  his  head  just  reached  the  top 
of  the  bar.  The  crime  was  clearly  proved  ; 
and  now  came  Mr.  Lothian's  time  to  shield  him 
from  the  arm  of  the  law.  By  the  evidence  of 
two  or  three  policemen,  he  proved  that  that 
untaught,  unschooled,  untrained,    uncared-for 


56  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST*    OR, 

infant,  had  a  parent,  by  whose  brutal,  cruel 
usage  he  was  compelled  to  steal.  Then,  caus- 
ing the  poor  child  to  be  lifted  up,  and  placed 
upon  the  bar,  in  sight  of  the  wondering,  pity- 
ing court,  he  turned  round  to  the  jury-box  with 
this  simple  but  telling  appeal  : — "  Gentlemen," 
he  said,  "  remember  what  I  have  proved  ;  look 
on  that  infant,  and  declare  him  guilty  if  you 
can." 

In  such  cases  justice  is  perplexed  what  to 
do.  It  is  not  the  heart  only,  but  the  head 
also,  which  is  dissatisfied  with  the  punishment. 
It  is  not  on  Mercy,  but  on  Justice,  that  we  call 
to  interpose  her  shield,  and  protect  the  victim 
from  the  arm  of  the  law.  The  guilty  party  is 
not  at  the  bar  ;  and  when  the  arm  of  Justice 
descends  on  a  diild  whom  its  country  has  neg- 
lected, abandoned  to  temptation,  and  left  with- 
out protection  to  a  parent's  cruelty,  she  r^ 
minds  us  of  the  figure  that  stood  some  years 
ago  over  the  courts  of  law  in  Londonderry.  A 
heavy  storm  liad  swept  across  the  country,  and, 
tearing  away  the  scales,  had  left  poor  Justice 
nothing  1)ut  lier  sword.     The  law  in  such  cases 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGKJED   SCHOOLS.  57 

may  pronounce  its  sentence  ;  but  humanity,  rea- 
son, and  religion,  revolt  against  it.  In  Scot- 
land, if  a  man  is  charged  with  crime,  the  jury, 
in  the  case  of  his  acquittal,  may  return  either 
a  verdict  of  not  gmlfy,  or  not  proven.  Where 
there  is  a  strong  ground  to  suspect  the  party 
guilty,  yet  some  slight  flaw  in  the  legal  proof 
of  his  guilt,— tlie  prisoner  is  acquitted  under  a 
verdict  of  not  proven  ;  and  if  there  are  cases 
where  the  verdict  is  in  truth,  "  guilty,  hut  not 
proven;^ — in  tlie  case  of  these  unhappy  chil- 
dren, who  are  suffering  for  the  crimes  of  their 
parents  and  neglect  of  society,  with  what  truth 
might  this  verdict  be  returned, '' proven,  hut  nx)t 
guilty  r 

No  offence  can  be  committed  but  there  is 
guilt  somewhere.  In  the  cases  I  refer  to,  how- 
ever, the  guilty  party  i-s  not  the  child  at  the 
bar.  In  the  parents  who  have  trained  the  child 
to  crime,  and  in  society,  that  has  made  no  ef 
fective  effort  to  save  him,  there  are  other  two 
parties.  It  may  not  be  easy  for  us  to  decide 
where  the  guilt  lies,  or  in  what  proportion  it 
is  shared  between  them  ;  but  we  are  thorough- 


58  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

ly  persuaded,  that  in  the  day  of  final  judgment 
there  will  be  found  many  an  unhappy  cliild 
\dio  has  stood  at  the  bar  of  man,  for  wliose 
crimes  other  parties  shall  have  to  answer  at 
the  bar  of  God.  We  don't  say  that  society 
can  remedy  every  wrong  ;  nor  do  we  enter- 
tain tlie  Utopian  expectation  that,  by  these 
schools,  or  by  any  other  means,  crime  can  be 
banished  from  this  guilty  world  ;  but  certainly 
institutions  which  will  secure  to  these  children 
a  common  and  Christian  education,  and  habits 
of  discipline  and  industry,  are  rich  in  promise. 
We  know  that  the  returns  of  autumn  fall  al- 
ways short  of  the  promise  of  summer, — that 
the  fruit  is  never  so  abundant  as  the  flower  ; 
still,  though  not  so  Utopian  as  to  expect  that 
these  schools  will  save  all,  we  have  good 
ground,  both  in  reason  and  Scripture,  to  ex- 
pect that  they  will  save  many  who  seem  other- 
wise doomed  to  ruin. 

To  take  the  lowest  of  all  ground, — to  de- 
scend from  the  high  considerations  of  human- 
ity, morality,  and  religion,  look  only  at  the 
pecuniary  saving.      To  come  down  from  the 


PLEAS  FOR  UAOGED  SCHOOLS.       59 

profit  and  loss  of  souls,  to  tlie  profit  and  loss  of 
money, — we  claim  for  this  scheme  the  public 
support.  It  may  be  laid  down  as  an  axiom, 
that  the  prevention  of  crime  is  cheaper  tlian 
its  punishment.  Our  schools  will  more  than 
repay  the  outlay.  Put  out  of  view  the  retui^n 
which  their  work  brings  in,  and  which  in  Aber- 
deen amounts  to  a  considerable  item  of  the 
expense,  and  enter  on  the  one  side  the  expense 
of  these  schools,  and  on  the  other  the  saving  to 
the  country,  through  the  diminution  of  crime, 
and,  when  the  account  is  closed,  we  have  a 
large  balance  in  our  favor.  We  pray  those 
who  are  afraid  of  the  probable  expense  of  our 
Ragged  Schools,  to  look  at  the  actual  expense 
of  our  criminal  prosecutions.  To  confine  our- 
selves to  the  case  of  convicts  ;— does  the  reader 
.know  that  there  are  about  three  hundred  of 
these  annually  transported  from  Scotland  ? 
Do  the  inhabitants  of  Edinburgh  know  that 
our  city  furnishes  about  one  hundred  of  these  ? 
And  that,  overlooking  tlie  expense  of  previous 
convictions,  and  th^e  money  which  the  subjects 
of  them  cost  when  living  by  theft  and  beggary, 


60  SEED-TIME  AND   HARVEST  ;   OR, 

the  actual  expense  of  their  conviction  of  the 
offence  for  which  they  are  transported,  and  of 
the  transportation  itself,  is  not  less  than  one 
hundred  pounds  a  head  !  For  convicts  belong- 
ing to  this  city  we  pay  ten  thousand  pounds  a 
year  ;  and  for  the  single  item  of  the  trial  and 
transportation  of  convicts, — who  are,  after  all, 
but  a  handful  of  the  other  criminals,  Scotland 
pays  annually  about  thirty  thousand  pounds. 
Look  at  the  following  table,  which  Mr.  Smith, 
governor  of  the  prison,  has  kindly  furnished. 
If  sensible  men  only  knew  what  enormous 
sums  are  paid  for  the  punishment  of  crimes, 
they  would,  as  a  matter  of  mere  economy,  hail 
with  pleasure  a  scheme  so  likely  to  prevent  it. 
This  table  will  convince  many,  that  in  doing 
so  little  towards  the  education  and  salvation 
of  the  unhappy  outcasts  at  our  doors,  we  have 
been  for  a  long  time,  to  use  a  vulgar  but  ex- 
pressive saying,  "  penny  wise  and  pound  fool- 
ish." 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      61 

Statement  of  the  Expenditure  for  Criminal  Prosecu- 
tions^  Maintenance  of  Criminals,  Sc,  for  Scotland^ 
for  the  year  1846. 

Expense  of  Prosecutions  carried  on  in  name 

and  by  authority  of  the  Lord  Advocate,    .      £13,775 

Sums  required  by  the  Sheriffs  in  Scotland  to 

settle  accounts  for  prosecutions     .     .         .  49,000 

Expenditure  under  the  -Prison  Boards  of  the 
several  counties  in  Scotland,  for  mainte- 
nance, &c.,  of  prisoners    ....  43,366 

Proportion  effeiring  to  Scotland  for  convicts 

sent  to  MiUbank 3,932 

Proportion  effeiring  to  Scotland  for  convicts 

sent  abroad 28,830 

Proportion  effeiring  to  Scotland  for  convicts 

at  home,  Bermuda,  Gibraltar,  &:c.    .         ,  7,193 

Expense  of  Prison  Board  in  Scotland  .  1,740 

Prison  Inspector's  allowances,  including  trav- 
elling charges 1,200 

Justiciary  Court  and  Crown  Agent  for  station- 
ery, printing,  &c 1,009 

£150,045 

In  addition  to  the  above,  vast  expenses  are 
incurred  in  the  punishment  of  crime,  the  amount 
of  whicli  we  cannot  specify,  such  as, — Expense 
of  Court  of  Justiciary,  including  judges'  sala- 
ries, travelling  expenses  on  circuits,  macers, 
&c.  ;  salaries  of  the  Lord  Advocate,  Solicitor- 
6 


62  SEED-TIME   AND   HARVEST  ;   OR, 

General,  and  Depute- Advocates;  Crown  Agenf  8 
salary,  including  assistants,  &g. 

The  following  should  also  be  included  : — 
Expenditure  by  the  several  counties,  cities,  and 
burghs  in  Scotland,  in  supporting  their  respec- 
tive police  establishments  ;  expenditure  by  ditto 
in  precognitions  and  summary  prosecutions  in 
criminal  cases,  not  reported  by  the  Sheriff  to 
the  Lord  Advocate  ;  one  year's  interest  on 
capital  expended  in  building  prisons,  lock-up 
houses,  &c. 

Some  one  has  said,  "  How  cheap  is  charity  !" 
This  beautiful  saying  might  form  the  motto  of 
our  Industrial  Schools.  No  man,  we  think, 
can  read  this  table  of  expense  without  the  con- 
viction being  borne  in  on  his  mind,  that  it  in 
high  time  to  be  doing  more  in  the  way  of  pre- 
venting, that  we  may  have  to  do  less  in  the 
way  of  punishing,  crime. 

Nothing  more  strongly  recommends  the 
scheme  to  me  than  the  fact,  that  it  reconciles 
two  great  and  good  philanthropists,  who  seem 
to  be  opposed  to  each  other, — both  lovers  of 
the  poor,  both  earnest  for  their  good, — both 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      63 

proposing  for  the  same  end  what  appear  differ- 
ent plans, — and  yet  both  right.  AVith  Dr. 
Chahuers  we  have  always  thought  that  it  was 
through  moral  and  Christian  machinery  that 
our  degraded  and  deep-sunk  population  were 
to  be  raised.  For  their  permanent  good  we 
have  no  faith  in  any  other  scheme.  With  Dr. 
Alison,  again,  we  always  thought  that  the 
maintenance  of  tlie  poor  was  miserably  inade- 
quate to  their  wants  ;  and  that  this  stood  as  a 
barrier  between  them  and  the  moral  influences 
by  which  Dr.  Chalmers  would  ameliorate  and 
permanently  improve  their  character.  We 
agreed  with  both,  and  confess  that  we  could 
never  very  well  see  how  they  seemed  to  dis 
agree  with  each  other.  In,  as  it  were,  th( 
presence  of  such  men,  I  speak  on  this  subject 
with  unfeigned  humility.  The  two  schemes 
may  go  hand  in  hand.  Nay,  more,  like  the 
Siamese  twins,  the  presence  of  the  one  should 
insure  the  company  of  the  other.  Our  scheme 
furnishes  a  common  walk  for  both  these  distin- 
guished philanthropists.  Under  the  self-same 
roof  the  temporal  and  the  moral  wants  of  our 
3 


64  SEED-TIME   AND   HARVEST  ;   OR, 

forlorn  poor  are  provided  for  :  and  both  these 
doctors  meet  harmoniously  in  our  school-room. 
Dr.  Alison  comes  in  with  his  bread, — Dr.  Chal- 
mers with  his  Bible  :  here  is  food  for  the  body, 
— there  for  the  soul.  Dr.  Alison's  bread  can- 
not be  abused, — Dr.  Chalmer's  Bible  is  heard 
by  willing  ears  ;  and  so  this  scheme,  meeting 
the  views  of  both,  lays  its  hands  upon  them 
both. 

We  have  been  dealing  with  objectors  and 
objections,  if  any  such  there  be.  If  any  man 
into  whose  hands  this  appeal  may  fall  is  ready 
to  toss  it  aside  as  an  effort  made  on  behalf  of 
those  who  are  not  worth  saving,  either  for  this 
world  or  the  next,  let  him  read  the  following 
passage  : — 

"  '  Push  it  aside,  and  let  it  float  down  the 
stream/  said  the  captain  of  a  steamboat  on  a 
small  western  river,  as  we  came  upon  a  huge 
log  lying  crosswise  in  the  channel,  near  to  a 
large  town  at  which  we  were  about  to  stop. 
The  headway  of  the  boat  had  already  been 
checked,  and  with  a  trifling  effort  the  position 
of  the  log  was  changed,  and  it  moved  onward 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.       65 

toward  the  Mississippi.  On  it  went,  perhaps 
to  annoy  others,  as  it  had  annoyed  us, — to 
lodge  here  and  there,  nntil  it  becomes  so  water- 
soaken,  that  the  heavier  end  will  sink  into  a 
sand-bar,  and  the  lighter  project  upward,  thus 
forming  a  '  sawyer,'  or  a  '  snag.'  It  would 
have  taken  a  little  more  effort  to  cast  it  high 
upon  the  land  ;  but  no  one  on  board  appeared 
to  think  of  doing  that,  or  anything  else,  save 
getting  rid  of  it  as  easily  as  possible,  for  it 
had  not  yet  become  a  formidahle  evil.  By  and 
by,  if  a  steamboat  should  be  going  down  the 
river,  and  strike  against  it,  causing  a  loss  of 
thousands  of  dollars,  if  not  of  life,  Jmndreds 
will  ask  the  old  question,  if  something  cannol 
be  done  to  remedy  such  evils,  without  stopping 
to  inquire  whether  they  cannot  be  prevented. 

"  Now,  this  is  the  way  in  which  some  of  us 
work,  who  profess  to  have  a  better  knowledge 
than  that  which  belongs  to  the  world.  We 
forget  that  old  proverb,  that  an  ounce  of  pre- 
vention is  better  than  a  pound  of  cure — that 
that  is  the  truest  wisdom  which  advises  the 
overcoming  of  the  beginnings  of  evil.  It  may 
6* 


66  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

cost  US  less  seeming  labor  to  '  push  aside '  the 
boy  who  stands  at  the  corner  of  the  street  on 
the  Sabbatli,  with  an  oath  on  his  lips,  than  to 
put  forth  a  little  extra  effort  to  get  him  into  a 
Sabbath-scliool.  But  he  is  not  yet  Si  formidable 
evil  to  society,  and  so  is  left  to  float  down  with 
the  current  of  vice — to  continue  his  growth  in 
sin,  and  reach  his  manhood  steeped  in  habits 
of  evil,  and  fixed  in  a  position  that  may  work 
the  ruin  of  more  than  one  soul." 

Yes,  it  is  easy  to  push  aside  the  poor  boy  iu 
the  street,  with  a  harsh  and  unfeeling  refusal, 
saying  to  your  neighbor,  "  These  are  the  pests 
of  the  city."  Call  them,  if  you  choose,  the 
rubbish  of  society  ;  only  let  us  say,  that  there 
are  jewels  among  that  rubbish,  which  would 
richly  repay  the  expense  of  searching.  Bedded 
in  their  dark  and  dismal  abodes,  precious  stones 
lie  there,  which  only  wait  to  be  dug  out  and 
polished,  to  shine,  first  on  earth,  and  hereafter 
and  for  ever  in  a  Redeemer's  crown. 

Dr.  Chalmers  has  eloquently  expounded,  and 
ofien  })ractically  exemplified,  the  principle,  that 
v\^hen  convinced  ourselves,  we  ought  to  begin 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      67 

at  once ;  nor  delay  action  until  all  are  ready 
to  move.  And  in  drawing  these  remarks  to  a 
close,  we  have  to  mention,  that,  acting  on  this 
principle,  an  Interim  Committee  of  gentlemen 
have  secured  premises,  and  taketi  steps  for  the 
speedy  opening  of  a  Ragged  School  in  this  city. 
We  cast  ourselves  with  perfect  faith  on  God, 
and  the  support  of  a  humane  and  Christian 
public.  We  hope  to  see  the  matter  taken  up 
on  a  large  and  general  plan,  worthy  of  its 
merits  and  worthy  of  the  metropolis  of  Scot- 
land. In  the  meantime,  we  are  content  to  be 
the  mere  pioneers  of  this  movement ;  and  for 
such  a  noble  experiment  we  trust  to  be  pro- 
vided with  funds  amply  sufficient  for  the  ex- 
penses we  incur.  For  such  assistance  we  can 
promise  a  richer  return  tlian  our  thanks — even 
the  blessing  of  those  that  are  ready  to  perish. 

In  closing  this  appeal,  I  have  only  further  to 
add,  th^  we  are  all  but  confident  of  public 
support.  We  have  brought  forth  revelations 
of  the  state  of  the  poor  which  Avill  be  new  to 
many.  If  any  of  these  read  tliis  appeal,  their 
Ignorance  canuot  hencefortli  excuse  their  apa- 


68  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST. 

thy.  Such  schools,  in  smaller  or  greater  num- 
bers, are  needed  in  many  towns.  M  e  hope  to 
see  Christians  of  all  denominations,  and  poli- 
ticians of  all  parties,  throughout  the  country, 
as  well  as  in  Edinburgh,  putting  forth  cordial 
and  combined  efforts  to  establish  and  extend 
Ragged  Schools.  Though,  for  the  sake  of  the 
perishing,  we  may  regret  the  defects  and  inade- 
quacy of  this  appeal,  we  will  never  regret  that 
it  has  been  made.  It  were  better  far  in  such  a 
case  to  fail,  than  to  stand  idly  by  and  see  the 
castaway  perish.  If  the  drowning  man  sink 
before  we  reach  him,  it  will  be  some  conso- 
lation to  reflect  that  we  did  our  best  to  save 
him.  Though  we  bore  home  but  the  dead  body 
of  her  boy,  we  should  earn  a  mother's  gratitude 
and  blessing.  We  had  tried  to  save  him  :  and 
from  that  blessed  One  who  made  Himself  poor 
that  He  might  make  us  rich — who  was  full  of 
compassion,  kind  and  patient  to  the  bad — and 
who  hath  set  us  an  example  that  we  should  fol- 
low his  steps — we  shall  at  least  earn  this  ap- 
proving sentence,  ''  They  have  done  what  they 
could." 


SECOND  PLEA. 

"Tbey  perish   in  the  open  streets— beneath  the  pitilesa 
pelting-  of  the  stoim— ofcold,  and  hunger,  and  broken  hearts."' 

Bishop  Horsley. 

DURING  the  noontide  heat  of  an  African 
i^un,  the  missionary  sat  with  his  family  in 
the  shadow  of  their  wag#n.  A  widely-spread 
solitude  extended  far  away  and  all  around 
them.  The  sun  glowed  from  a  cloudless  sky 
on  the  scorching  sand  ;  the  lion  lay  panting  in 
his  shady  den;  the  wild  beasts  had  sought, 
some  the  cooling  river,  some  the  depths  of  the 
dark  forest ;  and  all  around  the  travellers  there 
was  neither  sound,  nor  sight  of  life.  Nature 
lay  exhausted  ;  and  had  dropped  asleep  like 
an  infant  in  the  heat  of  day.  An  object  moving 
in  the  distance,  and  approacliing  his  encamp- 
ment, at  length  attracted  the  eye  of  the  mis- 
sionai-y.  By  and  by  a  boy  stood  before  him, 
in  the  grace  of  savage  freedom,  scantily  attired 

(69) 


YO  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

in  the  skin  of  a  wild  beast,  wlii eh  himg  from 
his  bronzed  and  naked  shoulders.  He  was 
accompanied  by  a  beautiful  springbok,  which 
licked  his  hand,  and  trotted  lovingly  at  his 
heels.  The  child  of  parents  who  had  died  or 
deserted  him,  without  brother  or  sister,  kindred, 
clan,  or*  companion,  save  the  gentle  deer — he 
told  his  story  in  a  single  sentence.  Fixing  his 
large  black  eyes  on  the  man  of  God,  he 
stretched  out  his  naked  arm,  and  said,  "  Stran- 
ger, I  am  alone  in  the  world."  The  appeal 
was  touching,  tender,  irresistible.  Let  us  hope 
it  will  prove  as  successful  with  kind  hearts  at 
home. 

The  solitude  of  a  crowd  is  the  most  painful 
of  all.  We  have  sat  on  the  shore  of  a  lonely 
bay,  shut  out  from  the  green  earth  by  its  gigan- 
tic walls,  with  nought  but  the  blue  sea  before 
us,  and  the  blue  sky  above  us  ;  on  the  sands  no 
print  of  human  foot,  nor  white  sail  on  the 
waters.  At  the  close  of  day  we  have  stood  in 
a  lone  Highland  glen,  where  tlie  mountains, 
crowned  by  frowning  crags,  rose  to  heaven, 
and   the  lake,   undisturbed   by  a   rip])le,   lay 


PLE.VS    FOIT    RAGfJEP    SCHOOLS.  71 

asleep  at  their  feet — shining  in  the  last  glei.in 
of  twilight,  like  molten  silver  at  tlic  bottom  of 
a  coal-black  crucible.  In  such  scenes  we  have 
felt  much  alone ;  but  never  so  much  so  as,  in 
early  youth,  on  descending  from  a  coach  on  a 
winter  evening,  in  the  heart  of  London,  where 
amid  the  glare  of  liglits,  and  the  roar  of  busi 
ness,  and  Juirrying  crowds,  we  knew  no  one 
The  Solitary  of  a  City  is  a  lonesome  being  ; 
and  such,  in  the  most  bitter  circumstances,  ari 
many  on  behalf  of  whom  I  venture  once  m.ore 
to  address  a  humane  and  Christian  public. 

The  appeal  which  we  are  now  about  to  make 
is  chiefly  addressed  to  those  who  have  as  yet 
lent  nothing  to  the  Ragged  Schools.  We  em- 
ploy the  word  lent  designedly  and  deliberately. 
It  has  not  slid  in  by  a  slip  of  the  pen,  but  is 
used  in  virtue  of  the  Divine  enunciation,  "  He 
that  giveth  to  the  poor,  lendeth  to  the  Lord, 
and  He  will  repay."  On  that  security  we 
would  borrow  your  money,  while  reminding 
you  of  these  other  words  of  Divine  benevolence. 
'*  Hide  not  thyself  from  thine  own  flesh  ;"  "  Give 
to  him  that  asketh  thee,  and  from  him  that 


72  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

would  borrow  of  thee  turn  not  thou  away." 
The  money  which  is  lavished  on  sturdy  beggars, 
on  the  wasteful  slaves  of  vice,  on  the  reckless 
and  improvident,  you  have  no  right  to  expect 
repayment  of.  These  are  not  the  poor.  On 
the  contrary,  they  plunder  the  poor,  and  prey 
on  poverty  ;  and,  hardening  men's  hearts  by 
their  frauds,  improvidence,  crimes,  and  detected 
impostures,  against  the  claims  of  real  poverty, 
they  deserve  not  charity,  but  chastisement.  It 
is  a  scandal  and  a  shame  that  such  devouring 
locusts  are  permitted  to  infest  our  city,  and 
swarm  in  its  streets.  The  vices  of  a  system 
which  the  police  strangely  tolerate,  and  oui 
charity  unwisely  maintains,  are  visible  in  the 
blotched  and  brazened  features  of  those  thriving 
solicitors.  The  very  breath  with  which  they 
whine  for  charity  smells  of  the  dram-shop.  It 
poisons  and  pollutes  the  air  ;  and  those  who 
contribute  to  foster  this  profligate  system  have 
no  claim  to  the  blessing, 

"  Blessed  is  he  that  wisely  doth 
The  poor  man's  case  consider." 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.       73 

If  ov  I-  Ragged  Schools  should  be  under  the 
paiufnl  necessity  of  drawing  in  their  expendi- 
myf\  and  of  contracting,  instead  of  extending 
tlic  sphere  of  their  operations,  it  will  be  lament- 
able. With  thousands  yearly  wasted  on  the 
maintenance  of  a  horde  of  plunderers,  the  con- 
dition of  the  body  politic  shall  be  as  unhealthy 
as  is  that  of  the  body  corporeal,  when  its  blood 
and  juices  go  to  nourish  an  enormous  wen, 
which  exhausts  the  strength,  creates  deformity, 
and  swells  at  the  expense  of  shrunken  and 
wasted  limbs. 

Should  this  plea  fall  into  the  hands  of  any 
whose  first  impulse  is  to  fling  it  aside,  with 
such  a  growl  as  that  wherewith  some  fat  and 
well-fed  mastiff  salutes  the  timid,  lank,  hungry, 
houseless  cur  wlio  presumes  to  approach  his 
well-heaped  trencher,  we  beseech  their  patience. 
As  confident  in  the  goodness  as  we  are  earnest 
for  the  success  of  our  cause,  with  the  brave  old 
Roman  we  say,  "  Strike,  but  hear  me  !" 

There  are  schemes  of  benevolence  which  la- 
bor under  a  serious  disadvantage.  The  objects 
they  seek  to  benefit,  and  the  benefits  they  sue- 


74  SEED-TIME    AXD    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

ceed  in  bestowing  on  them,  are  out  of  sight ; 
remote,  and  far  away.  The  Christianizing  ot* 
the  heathen,  and  emancipation  of  the  slave, 
achieved  amid  foreign  scenes,  and  on  fields 
from  which  we  are  separated  by  thousands  of 
miles,  are  objects  to  us,  not  of  sight,  but  of 
faith.  We  neither  saw  the  negro  writhing  un- 
der the  lash,  nor,  when  his  chains  were  struck 
off,  bound  from  the  earth  to  dance  and  sing, 
and  shout  in  a  delirium  of  joy.  We  could 
neither  see  the  Indian  leap  in  hideous  paint 
and  with  whirling  tomahawk  into  the  circle 
of  the  war-dance,  nor,  when  converted,  hurl 
his  tomahawk  into  the  bosom  only  of  the  lake, 
and  sit  down  as  a  child  of  peace  at  the  feet  of 
Jesus,  "  clothed,  and  in  his  right  mind."  To 
move  the  feelings  and  touch  the  hearts  of  men 
till  waters  flowed  as  to  the  rod  of  Moses  from 
the  flinty  rock,  and  money  poured  into  the 
Treasury  of  Liberty  or  Religion,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  call  in  the  orator  and  the  poet,  to  ad- 
dress the  imagination  through  eloquent  and 
pathetic  pictures  of  the  sorrows  of  humanity. 
Fortunately,  at  least  for  our  cause,  our  streets 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGCED  SCHOOLS.       75 

swann  with  living  evidences  of  the  need  o^ 
these  schools.  Their  advocates  are  before  us, 
in  all  the  pathos  of  misery,  begging,  shivering, 
starving  in  the  streets.  What  picture  could  I 
paint  half  so  touching  as  the  living  spectacle ! 

'^  Famine  is  in  their  cheeks ; 
Need  and  oppression  staring  in  their  looks ; 
Contempt  and  beggary  hang  upon  their  back's." 

I  may  state,  for  the  information  of  those  who 
have  not  read  the  first  "  Plea,"  that,  while  en- 
gaged in  writing  it,  I  had  statistics  showing 
that  there  were  at  least  one  thousand  children 
growing  up  among  us  in  total  ignorance,  and 
doomed  to  a  career  of  crime.  Their  only  hope 
of  being  saved  lay  in  the  opening  of  an  ade- 
quate number  of  Ragged  Schools.  Now  since 
that  "  Plea "  was  published  much  good  has 
been  done  ;  but  how  much  remains  undone ! 
The  numbers  attending  our  own  school  and 
others  are  as  follows  : — 

Rev.  Messrs.  Paul  and  Veitch's  Ragged  School  68 
United  Industrial  School  .  .  .  .100 
The  Original  Ragged  School  (our  own)  .        .     210 

378 


76  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

Assuming  that  there  are  no  more  than  one 
thousand  outcast  children  in  Edinburgh,  then 
we  leave  more  than  the  half  to  perish.  At 
that  estimate,  we  bring  off  little  more  than 
a  third  from  the  wreck  ;  and  if,  as  is  probable, 
the  actual  number  is  not  one,  but  two  thousand, 
there  are  then  more  than  fifteen  hundred  chil- 
dren here  who  are  growing  up  to  disturb  and 
disgrace  society,  to  entail  on  the  country  an 
enormous  expense,  and  to  supply  with  their 
hopeless  and  unhappy  victims  our  Police  Office 
and  prisons.  How  hard  and  melancholy  their 
lot !  These  furnish  fifteen  hundred  arguments 
for  our  schools.  While  one  poor  child  remains 
unsaved,  so  long  as  one  is  left  hanging  on  the 
wreck  over  the  devouring  sea,  I  have  ground, 
firm  as  the  truth  of  God,  on  which  to  appeal 
both  to  your  justice  and  generosity. 

So  much  for  numbers.  Let  me  next  present 
some  idea  of  the  state  in  which  these  children 
are  when  found.  The  following  cases  are  cop- 
ied from  our  books  or  the  record  of  the  Police 
Office  : 

Case  1.  "  Jolin  H ,  seven  years  of  age, 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      77 

has  been  in  the  habit  of  sleeping  in  stairs,  or 
wherever  he  can  find  shelter,  and  was  sent  to 
onr  school  from  the  Police  Office,  where  he 
was  well  known  as  a  juvenile  mendicant.  He 
deserted  school  thirteen  times  ;  and  when  our 
teachers  despaired  of  breaking  in  this  young 
savage,  a  sister  of  about  eight  years  old  ap- 
peared at  the  school,  as  wild,  wandering,  and 
wayward  as  liimself.  The  change  on  these 
children  is  such,  that,  instead  of  being  a  pest, 
they  are  now  a  pleasure." 

Case  2.  "Anne  B ,  thirteen  years  of  age, 

was  sent  here  from  the  Police  Court,  having 
been  convicted  of  public  begging.  She  could 
read  none,  having  never  been  at  any  school. 
Her  mother  is  dead,  and  her  father  has  long 
since  deserted  her.  Her  uncle  resides  in  town, 
goes  to  no  cliurch,  but  keeps  a  low  lodging- 
house  in  a  mean  locality.  There  are  twelve 
beds  in  his  house,  and  each  of  these  is  gener- 
ally occupied  by  three  or  four  persons.  She 
had  to  carry  drink  to  the  lodgers  at  all  hours 
of  the  night ;  and  her  fortune  was,  sometimes 
to  get  a  bed  for  herself, — sometimes  none  at 
7* 


76  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

all.  riiis  poor  girl,  so  nigh  to  destruction, 
has  .een  rescued  from  circumstances  which 
wou.d  have  speedily  ended  in  her  ruin.  She 
has  found  a  Saviour  and  an  asylum  in  our  Rag- 
ged School ;  and  now,  sheltered  at  night  be- 
neath the  roof  of  a  decent  widow,  she  is  happy, 
contented,  and  willing  to  do  well." 

Case  3.  "  Jane   T ,  about  eleven  years 

of  age.  She  has  been  wandering  about  the 
town,  begging  in  ordinary,  and  stealing  when 
she  could  ;  sleeping  on  stairs,  or  wherever  a 
place  could  be  found  for  her  head  to  lie  on, 
along  with  her  brother,  who  is  such  another 
outcast  and  wanderer.  She  was  sent  to  our 
School  from  the  Police  Court.  Their  case, 
as  well  as  many  others,  proves  the  early 
power  of  evil  habits,  and  how  difficult  it  is  to 
tame  these  Arabs  of  the  city.  The  day  after 
being  received  into  the  school  they  both  de- 
serted. There  was  reason  to  believe  that  the 
boy  had  committed  some  crime,  for  which  he 
had  been  thrown  into  jail.  The  girl  was 
sought  for  :  the  lost  sheep  was  found  ;  and,  by 
her  excellent  beliavior,  she  now  promises,  with 


PLEAS   FOR   llAGCED    SCHOOLS.  79 

God's  blessing,  to  reward  all  the  care  and 
kindness  slie  has  received." 

Case  4.  "  The  son  of  Eliza  J ,  residing 

.  .  .  .  does  not  know  his  age  ;  supposed 
about  eight  or  nine  ;  father  dead  ;  a  smart,  ac- 
tive child  ;  and  has  been  singing  on  the  street 
and  jumping  Jim  Crow  for  a  considerable  pe- 
riod past.  He  was  formerly  at  the  Industrial 
School,  but  was  taken  therefrom  by  his  mother, 
who  found  it  more  profitable  to  have  him  sing- 
ing and  begging  than  being  at  school.  Bailie 
Stott  requests  that  he  be  again  received  ;  and 
should  his  mother  try  to  take  him  again  away, 
the  police  will  do  all  they  can  to  get  at  her. 

(Signed)    Jas.  Morham." 

"  Police  Court." 

Cctse  5.  "  P.  G was  brought  up  as  a  va- 
grant. He  confesses  he  had  not  been  at  school 
for  two  years,  and  frankly  admits  that  he  has 
been  all  that  time  going  about  stealing.  He 
expresses  his  willingness  to  go  to  school.  The 
family  is  said  to  be  a  bad  one.  The  case  is 
continued  for  a  month.     In  case  he  absconds, 


80 


SEED-TIME   AxVD    HARVEST  ;    OR, 


he  will  require  to  be  watched,  as  he  confessea 
to  have  had  a  hand  in  many  thefts. 

(Signed)    Andrew  Jameson." 

In  regard  to  this  boy, — sent  to  our  school  by 
the  Sheriff-substitute,  Mr.  Jameson,*  one  of  its 
warmest  and  most  enlightened  friends,  and  we 
may  add  that  the  superintendent  certifies  his 
regular  attendance,  and  the  great  satisfaction 
upon  the  whole  that  he  has  given. 

These  examples  may  convey  to  the  reader 
some  idea  of  the  hard  and  melancholy  lot  of 
these  poor  children. 

The  whole  country  has  been  agitated  by  dis- 
cussions on  education  ;  and  debate  has  waxed 
warm  and  high  on  the  question,  whether  the 
instruction  of  the  people  belongs  to  the  Gov- 
ernment, or  should  be  left  to  voluntary  enter- 
prise. Tliere  are  two  sides  to  that  question, 
— there  is  but  one  side'here.  If  these  wretch- 
ed, neglected,  and  unhappy  outcasts  are  to  be 

'■'  In  the  Appendix  the  reader  will  find  a  valuable  letter 
from  ;\Ir.  Jameson,  where  he  bears  his  testimony  to  the 
operation  of  the  Industrial  Schools. 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 


81 


taugbt  and  saved,  there  is  no  room  to  deny,  or 
even  doubt,  the  indispensable  necessity  of  Rag- 
ged Schools.  Nowhere  else  can  the  objects 
of  our  charity  find  a  school  and  an  asylum. 
Theirs  is  a  hard  and  woeful  lot ;  nor  could  it 
perhaps  be  better  set  forth  than  in  the  follow- 
ing table,  descriptive  of  the  cases  of  the  chil- 
dren who  have  attended  our  school  during  the 
last  twelvemonth : — 


Above  Eip;ht 
Years  of  Age. 

Infants. 

Total. 

Boys. 
23 

Girls. 

Fatherless,  with  drunken  Moth's 

18 

23 

63 

Motherless,     "        '*      Fathers 

22 

18 

17 

57 

Both  Parents  utterly  worthless 

30 

26 

21 

77 

Certainly  known  as  Children  of 

Thieves       •       

23 
35 

28 
48 

18 
47 

G9 
130 

T?plipvpd  to  be  80       

Who  have  been  Beggars 

88 

79 

65 

232 

Who  have  been  in  Jail 

11 

7 

18 

Who  have  been  in  Police  Office 

32 

19 

51 

1  Who  were  homeless 

15    1    12 

27 

82 


These  victims  of  parents'  damnable  and 
damning  vices  suffer  through  sins  not  their 
own.  Look  at  that  creature  whose  shivering 
limbs,  and  pinched  and  hungry  features,  appeal 
to  your  tenderest  feelings  !  Are  you  to  follow 
the  footsteps  of  the  good  Samaritan,  or,  pass- 
ing by  on  the  other  side,  leave  that  hapless 
child  to  its  miserable  doom  ?  Little  do  many 
know  what  misery,  what  bitter  hours,  what 
biting  cold,  what  brutal  usage  are  summed  up 
in  its  short  experience.  This  elf-like  creature, 
whose  infancy  was  neither  cradled  nor  ca- 
ressed, that  stands  here  with  naked  limbs,  and 
tangled  locks,  and  "  uncouth  features,  meagre, 
pale  and  wild,"  has  suffered  day  by  day  the 
most  brutal  usage, — usage  such  as,  if  inflicted 
on  child,  brother,  sister  of  yours  or  mine,  woulcj 
stir  the  very  deptlis  of  passion,  and  make  our 
eyes  flash  with  angry  fires !  What  mothers 
they  have  !  One  night  the  street  along  which 
I  walked  was  suddenly  filled  with  loud  pierc- 
ing shrieks.  A  poor  starved-like  boy,  whose 
mother  was  going  with  her  paramour  to 
drink,  had  followed  her,  remonstrating  with 


PLEAS    FOU    RA(^GED    SCHOOLS.  83 

her.  She  had  turned  on  him  like  a  wild  beast. 
I  fouiid  her  beating  him  most  savagely.  And 
I  well  remember  with  what  rage,  when  I  had 
thrust  myself  in  between  them,  and  flung  her 
back,  she  turned  on  me  to  justify  her  brutal- 
ity ;  alleging  that,  as  the  child  was  hers,  she 
might  treat  him  as  she  liked.  To  the  children 
of  such  mothers,— or  monsters  rather,— our 
school  opens  wide  the  gates  of  a  most  welcome 
and  blessed  asylum. 

To  leave  them  to  the  care  of  their  parents, 
is  to  doom  them  to  certain  ruin.     Are  they  to 
be  taught  industry  by  idleness  ?   honesty  by 
tiieft?    sobriety  by  drunkenness?    purity  by 
pollution?  decorum  by  indecency?  the  fear  and 
the  love  of  God  by  those  of  whom  the  Scrip- 
ture says,  "  God  is  not  in  all  their  thoughts  ?" 
Those  only   who,  like    ourselves,  have  gone 
down  into  the  dark  abodes  of  poverty  and 
crime,  of  fever,  pestilence,  and  pollution,  can 
form  a  sufiftciently  strong  conviction  of  the 
utter  folly  of  leaving  these  children  to  no  oth- 
er than  parental   care.      In   their   ignorance 
some  may  wonder  at  our  anxiety  to  pluck  the 


84  SEED-TIME   AND   HARVEST:   OR, 

child  from  the  arms  of  her  whom  nature  teach* 
es  to  love  it.  But  vice  turns  a  mother's  heart 
to  stone,  and  works  a  metamorphosis  passing 
any  sung  by  Ovid.  How  altered  in  the  poet's 
hands  does  Lycaon  grow  ! 

"  The  tyrant,  in  affright,  for  shelter  gains 
The  neighboring  fields,  and  scours  along  the  plains. 
Howhng  he  fled,  and  fain  he  would  have  spoke ; 
But  human  voice  his  brutal  tongue  forsook. 
About  his  lips  the  gathered  foam  he  churns, 
And,  breathing  slaughter,  still  v^^ith  rage  he  burns; 
But  on  the  bleating  flock  -his  fury  turns : 
His  mantle,  now  his  hide,  with  rugged  hairs, 
Cleaves  to  his  back ;  a  famished  face  he  bears. 
His  arms  descend,  his  shoulders  sink  away, 
To  multiply  his  legs,  for  chance  of  prey. 
He  grows  a  wolf;  his  hoariness  remains. 
And  the  same  rage  in  other  members  reigns.*' 

The  poet  turns  Lycaon  into  a  ravenous  wolf ; 
Ijut,  as  George  Whitefield  was  wont  to  say,  and 
thunder  over  awe-struck  assemblies,  sin  has 
turned  man  into  a  monstrous  compound  of 
half-brute  half-devil. 

There  can  be  no  greater  folly  than  to  ti'ust 
the  drunkard's  children  to  the  drunkard's  care. 
If  habits  of  dissipation  be  once  thorouglily 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.       85 

rooted,  character  forfeited,  and  the  powers  of 
the  mind  prostrated  by  long  indulgence,  vain 
is  the  struggle  which  domestic  love,  religious 
knowledge,  and  even  an  anticipation  of  the 
dreadful  issue,  maintain  with  this  master  vice. 
To  illustrate  this,  and  to  rouse  a  drowsy  pub- 
lic, to  awaken  virtuous  indignation  against 
the  drinking-shops  that  are  strewed,  like  some 
fatal  shore,  with  wrecks  of  families,  and  for- 
tune, and  fame,  and  character, — let  me  select 
from  many  such  cases,  one  which  has  left  an 
indelible  impression  on  my  memory. 

On  the  forenoon  of  a  winter  day,  some  seven 
years  ago,  I  received  a  note,  urging  me,  if  I 
wished  to  save  his  life,  to  hurry  to  the  abode 
of  the  writer.  I  knew  him.  He  was  a  man 
of  talent ;  and  had  an  uncommon  knowledge 
of  Scripture.  After  seeing  a  great  deal  of  the 
world,  he  had  returned  to  spend  his  days  at 
home,  possessed  of  what,  with  a  little  industry 
on  his  part,  would  amply  suffice  for  the  main- 
tenance of  his  family.  A  prudent,  tidy,  sober, 
sensible  wife,  with  two  or  three  fine  children, 
made  up  his  domestic  circle;  and  a  sweeter, 
8 


86  SEED-TIME   AND   HARVEST;   OR, 

happier  home  there  might  not  have  been  in  all 
Edinburgh.  But  what  availed  these  ?  He  was 
a  drunkard.  On  my  first  visit  to  this  district, 
I  found  him  a  woe-begone  wretch ;  sitting  idle 
and  gloomy  in  a  foul  apartment ;  his  wife 
heart-broken  ;  and  he  himself  the  terror  of  his 
children,  who,  clad  in  rags,  waited  on  no  min- 
istry, and  went  to  no  school.  In  course  of 
time  a  very  remarkable  change  was  wrought 
on  his  home  and  habits.  The  wilderness  had 
become  an  Eden,  and  the  desert  a  garden  of 
the  Lord  !  And  it  was  a  pleasant  sight  to  set' 
that  man  on  the  Sabbath  day, — his  family  be 
side  him,  roses  blooming  on  their  cheeks,  and 
their  rags  exchanged  for  com^rtable  and  be 
coming  attire.  I  have  often  looked  at  hin 
with  wonder  as  he  sat  before  the  pulpit,  drink 
ing  in  the  truth,  his  glistening  eye  fixed  upon 
the  speaker.  His  home  was  now  comfortably 
and  fully  furnished.  Cheap  and  simple  orna- 
ments adorned  its  once  naked  walls.  It  was 
impossible  to  stand  on  the  clean-swept  hearth- 
stone, before  the  bright  fire,  amid  so  many 
comforts,  with  such  a  happy,  cheerful  family 


PLEAS   FOR   RAGGED    SCHOOLS.  87 

around,  and  not  cling  fondly  to  the  hope  that 
this  was  "  a  brand  plucked  from  the  burning." 
Such  had  been  the  state  of  matters  before  I 
received  the  ominous  note.  It  was  with  dark 
forebodings  that  I  hastened  to  the  house,  and 
climbed  live  flights  of  stairs  to  the  room  where 
drunkenness  and  poverty  had  driven  this  man, 
and  where,  though  brighter  days  had  dawned, 
he  still  resided.  His  poor  Avife,  "  her  eyes  con- 
sumed with  grief,"  with  three  children  clinging 
in  terror  to  their  mother,  was  the  first  sight 
that  met  me.  She  put  her  finger  on  her  lips, 
and  led  me  into  a  neighbor's  room.  There  I 
heard  all.  He  had  been  mad  with  drink  foi 
some  days.  Trembling  for  her  own  and  hei 
children's  lives,  she  had  had  to  seek  an  asylum 
beneath  a  kind  neighbor's  roof.  The  door  of 
his  room  was  bolted  ;  but  he  opened  it  when  1 
knocked  and  announced  my  name.  What  a 
scene  was  there !  No  furniture  ;  no  bedding  ; 
the  fire  quenched  on  the  hearth  ;  the  very  grate 
removed  from  the  cold  black  chimney, — all  sold 
for  drink.  And  amid  this  desolation  stood  the 
man  himself,  tliat  cold  winter  day,  without  coat, 


ss 


or  vest,  or  stockings,  or  shoes, — the  sleeve  ol 
his  shirt  rolled  up  to  the  shoulder,  and  a  large 
knife  in  his  hand..  He  had  resolved  on  suicide, 
but  stood  uncertain  how  to  leave  the  scene  : 
whether  by  the  knife  ;  or  by  the  window  thrown 
up  for  the  dreadful  leap  ;  or  by  a  rope  and 
noose,  that  hung  ominous  and  frightful  from  a 
post  of  the  bedstead.  I  dealt  as  I  best  could 
with  this  guilty  and  troubled  spirit.  His  con- 
science was  again  awakened.  Affection  to  his 
wife  and  children  resumed  its  sway.  He  threw 
himself  at  her  feet :  he  kissed  his  little  ones, 
and  accused  himself  of  being  the  veriest,  vilest 
wretch  on  earth  !  The  scene,  which  would  have 
melted  a  heart  of  stone,  afforded  me  some  hope 
that,  from  this  new  struggle  with  an  old  enemy, 
he  might  at  length  come  off  victorious, — earn- 
ing the  blessings  of  his  family,  and  the  praise 
of  Him  who  hath  said, "  He  that  ruleth  his  own 
spirit  is  greater  than  he  that  taketh  a  city." 

Alas!  his  goodness  was  like  the  morning 
cloud  :  and  by  and  by  he  abandoned  his  liome, 
adding  another  to  the  vast  number  of  misera- 
ble families  which  have  been  deserted  by  their 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      8V) 

natural  protectors.  In  time  he  was  forgotten, 
as  a  dead  man  out  of  mind.  Yet  we  met  aaain. 
Engaged,  one  day,  in  visiting  in  the  Grass- 
market,  I  entered  a  low  lodging-house,  kept  by 
an  Irishwoman.  While  conversing  with  some 
of  her  countrymen,  the  mistress  said  that  a 
lodger  in  the  back  room  wished  to  see  me. 
She  lighted  a  candle  ;  and,  stooping,  followed 
by  me,  she  entered  a  low,  long,  dark,  narrow 
apartment,  with  beds,  as  thick  as  they  could 
be  placed,  ranged  on  each  side.  She  stopped 
by  a  bed,  on  which,  under  a  dirty  coverlet  that 
was  drawn  over  the  face,  lay  a  human  form, 
like  a  corpse  beneath  its  shroud.  A  heavy 
sigh  was  the  only  answer  returned  to  the  ques- 
tion. Who  wishes  to  see  me  ?  The  face  was  at 
length  uncovered  ;  and  the  light  of  the  candle 
fell  on  the  haggard,  death-stamped  features  of 
the  wretched  man  who  once  seemed  to  have 
been  saved.  I  was  shocked  at  the  sight ;  and 
shall  never  forget  his  piteous  tone  and  despair- 
ing look,  as  he  asked,  "  Is  it  possible,  sir,  after 
all,  I  can  be  saved  ?  " 

There  are  many  such  unhappy  men  an<l  un- 
8* 


90  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST;   OB, 

happy  families  !  Political  economists  may 
preach  till  "  the  crack  of  doom  "  on  the  natu- 
ral rights  of  parents,  and  the  dangers  of  abus- 
ing charity ;  but  are  we  to  allow  parents  to 
sacrifice  their  offspring  to  their  vices, — to  offer 
them  in  the  fire  to  Moloch  ?  We  cannot  stand 
by  without  attempting  to  rescue  them.  Who 
could,  if  they  stretched  out  their  little  hands  to 
us  from  the  windows  of  a  house  which  had  been 
fired  by  their  father  in  the  frenzy  of  intoxica- 
tion ?  Yet  how  strange  it  is  that  humane, 
kind,  generous,  good  Christians  can  smile  their 
way  along  the  streets  where  hundreds  of  poor 
children  are  perishing  in  a  worse  way  before 
their  very  eyes ! 

The  world  presents  few  examples  of  the 
power  of  familiarity  more  palpable,  or  more 
painful,  than  may  be  seen  in  these  streets. 
There,  exposed  to  the  biting  blast,  in  faded 
weeds  that  are  glazed  with  the  soaking  rain, 
sits  a  woman  ;  a  tender  infant  lies  on  her  open 
lap  ;  while,  ever  turning  up  wan,  and  sallow, 
and  meagre  faces  for  charity,  a  child  on  each 
Bide  cowers  beneath  her  scanty  cloak.     Less 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 


91 


fortunate  than  the  brood  that  swin^  cradled 
in  downy  nest  beneath  the  warm  feathers  of 
a  mother's  wing,  these  creatures  nestle  close 
together,  in  the  vain  attempt,  on  that  cold 
pavement,  and  beneath  that  lashing  rain,  to 
warm  their  torpid  limbs.  How  strange  must 
it  seem  to  angels,  as  they  look  down  through 
that  stormy  sky,  to  see  how  this  group  of  liv- 
ing misery  attracts  less  attention  than  if,— the 
triumph  of  some  sculptor's  genius,— it  were 
chisfciled  from  a  block  of  marble!  And— 
most  base  and  worthless  pity!— people  there 
are,  of  refined  taste,  and  sentimental  in  their 
way,  who  would  stand  to  gaze  and  shed  tears 
on  the  cold  stone,  that  pass  this  living  group 
of  sorrow  w>.h  pitiless  indifference. 

They  may  U\\  us,  in  self-defence,  that  the 
mother  is  a  wicked  and  worthless  profligate. 
We  cannot  take  that  for  granted.  We  have 
seen  crime  rustling  In  silks ;  a  saint  expiring 
on  a  bed  of  rags  ;  u.>d  innocence  begging 
bread  on  our  streets.  What  scenes  of  virtu- 
ous  sorrow  and  unpitied  suffering  could  many 
of  these  old,  lofty,  begrimed  tenements  reveal! 


92  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST  ;   OB, 

"Where  the  palhd  mother  croons  to  rest 
The  withering  babe  at  her  milkless  breast ; 
She,  wakeful,  views  the  risen  day 
Break  gladness  o'er  her  home's  decay, 
And  God's  blest  light  a  ghastly  glare 
Of  grey  and  deathy  dimness  there." 

But  grant  the  mother's  profligacy.  So  much 
the  worse  for  her  children  ;  and  so  much  the 
greater,  we  add,  the  need  of  your  interference. 
The  apology  which  you  make  for  your  neglect, 
is  an  aggravation  of  its  guilt. 

The  charity  too  often  wasted  on  drunken 
mothers,  we  would  apply  to  the  benefit  of  their 
innocent  offspring.  And  in  proposing  to  in- 
terfere between  the  rapacity  of  the  parent  and 
the  ruin  of  the  child,  we  do  nothing  but  what 
others  elsewhere  have  proposed,  and  all  men 
have  commended.  Turn  your  eyes  on  India  ! 
As  if  our  humanity  had  grown  warm  beneath 
its  sunny  skies,  we  interposed  the  authority  of 
British  law  to  abolish  infanticide.  Though  the 
sacrifice  was  on  their  part  an  act  of  devotion, 
we  prevented  Indian  mothers  casting  their  fe- 
male infants  into  the  stream.  Here,  as  well 
as  there,  liberty  should  be  restrained  wheD 


PLEAS  FOR  RAOOEI)  SCHOOLS       93 

it  passes  into  licentiousness  ;  and,  wherever 
tliey  are  flagrantly  abused,  parental,  as  well  as 
elective  rights,  should  be  withdrawn.  It  was 
a  noble  act  to  put  down  infanticide  in  India  ; 
yet  why  tolerate  at  home  the  horrid  crimes 
committed  by  parents  against  their  children? 
It  looks  as  if  our  humanity  was  affected,  like 
a  thermometer,  by  climate,  rising  and  falling 
with  the  temperature  of  the  zones, — glowing  be- 
neath the  sun  of  India,  but  cold  and  chill  here 
as  the  fogs  of  our  northern  skies. 

Does  the  reader  ask,  What  can  I  do  ?  Fol- 
low, we  answer,  where  a  princess  leads.  The 
castaway  is  before  you,  adrift,  like  Moses,  on 
the  stream :  we  stand  anxiously  by  the  river 
side,  watching  the  result  of  this  appeal.  Ready 
to  undertake  the  welcome  task,  we  wait  for 
you  to  say,  with  Pharaoh's  daughter,  "  Take 
this  child  away,  and  nurse  it  for  me,  and  I  will 
give  thee  thy  wages."  We  implore  you  to 
follow  a  yet  higher  example,  and  attempt  an 
"  Imitation  of  Christ"  Himself.  I  have  often 
thought,  had  He  walked  our  streets,  how  Jesus 
Christ  would  have  pitied  these  unhappy  chil- 


94  SEED-TIME    AXD   HARVEST;    OR, 

(Iren  !  Who  can  doubt  it,  that  remembers  his 
parable  of  the  good  shepherd,  who  left  the 
ninety  and  nine,  to  seek  the  lost  sheep  in  the 
wilderness  ;  nor  abandoned  the  search  till  he 
could  return,  rejoicing  that  the  lost  was  found  ? 
With  such  an  example,  who  should  refuse  their 
help  ?  Give  as  you  are  able  ;  but  give.  Then, 
though  still  with  sorrow,  you  can  without 
shame  look  a  helpless  outcast  in  the  face.  You 
have  done  what  you  could. 

It  may  encourage  many  to  come  to  our  help, 
as  it  has  encouraged  our  Committee  to  contin- 
ue their  exertions,  to  show  how  the  tree,  though 
planted  but  two  short  years  ago,  is  not  only 
budding,  and  blossoming,  but,  like  Aaron's  rod, 
is  also  bearing  fruit. 

Perhaps  the  most  satisfactory  evidence  that 
I  can  give  of  this  will  be  found  in  the  follow- 
ing extract.  Mr.  Grimmond,  our  superintend- 
ent, writes, — 

''  There  are  four  kinds  of  fruit  resulting 
from  the  establishment  of  these  schools  : — 

''  1.9^,  That  reaped  by  the  puljlic.  in  being  re- 
lieved from  the  molestation  and  importunity 


PLEAS    FOR   RACxGED   SCHOOLS.  9o 

of  swarms  of  juvenile  beggars.  Under  tlii? 
head  I  have  only  to  say,  that  people,  in  talking 
to  me  about  these  schools,  have  often  remarked 
that,  since  their  institution,  the  streets  are 
much  more  clear  of  that  class. 

"  2d,  The  benefits  enjoyed  by  the  children, 
who  have  been  lifted  out  of  misery,  and  arc 
now  comfortable  and  happy.  Any  one  may 
mark  the  difference  between  the  juvenile  beg- 
o-ar  of  the  street  and  the  child  of  the  Ragged 
Scliool  ;  the  lazy  l)eggar  is  turned  into  a  busy 
scholar  ;  the  pale,  sunken  cheek  is  now  fat  and 
blooming  ;  and  the  miserable,  sickly,  house- 
less, uncared-for  child  is  enjoying  the  blessings 
of  Christianity. 

"  3(/,  The  advantages  gained  by  those  chil- 
dren who  have  left  these  schools  and  entered 
on  some  useful  employment,  who  are  now  doing 

well. 

"  4,th,  The  fruit  reaped  by  those  who  seem 
to  have  received,  not  only  religious  knowledge, 
but  serious  impressions,  in  our  schools.  Under 
this  head  I  can  confidently  say,  that  during 
the  Bible  lesson  these  children  are  more  atten- 


OR, 

tive  than  any  I  have  elsewhere  seen.  The 
death-beds  of  some  have  furnished  us  with 
good  ground  for  believing  that,  from  these 
schools,  and  through  means  of  them,  some  have 
gone  to  be  with  Jesus,  and  that  some  of  your 
Ragged  School  fruits  are  already  being  reaped 
in  glory.  One  poor  little  child,  Betty 
M'K ,  ten  years  of  age,  was  blessed,  I  be- 
lieve, through  the  Bible  lesson  she  had  carried 
home,  to  lead  her  poor  ignorant  father  to  a 
knowledge  of  the  truth.  He  died  in  the  In- 
firmary ;  and,  soon  after,  she  fell  into  a  fatal 
decline.  She  never  fretted,  having  learnt  to 
bear  with  patience  all  that  God  laid  on  her. 
In  answer  to  my  question,  she  said,  '  I  am  not 
afraid  to  die  ;'  and,  as  the  reason  of  her  confi- 
dence, added,  '  because  Jesus  loves  me.'  On 
the  evening  before  her  death,  her  tongue,  whicli 
had  been  tied  for  three  days,  was  unloosed,  and 
for  some  seven  minutes  she  engaged  in  fervent- 
prayer,  saying,  as  she  stood  on  the  brink  of 
eternity,  that  she  thought  it  far  better  to  de- 
part and  be  with  Jesus  ;  and  the  Doctor  and 
otiier  Christian  friends  who  visited  her  had  no 


PLEAS   FOR   RAGGED    SCHOOLS.  97 

doubt  that  she  was  a  lamb  gathered  into  the 
fold.  Some  other  cases,  not  less  promising,  I 
could  give,  but  abstain,  only  adding,  that  the 
nmnner  in  which  their  parents  or  guardians  de- 
scribe to  us  how  they  used  to  sing  with  delight 
the  hymns  they  had  learned  in  the  school,  and 
tell  about  Jesus  and  heaven,  showed  that  they 
at  least  wished  to  be  there.  I  have  no  doubt 
that  some  of  their  parents  have  been  greatly 
benefited  in  this  way  ;  and  I  could  take  you  to 
this  one,  and  that  one,  and  another  one,  who 
have  become  church  attenders  since  their  chil- 
dren came  to  the  Ragged  School  ;  while  oth- 
ers of  them  come  and  hear  the  Bible  lesson  in 
school  along  with  their  children  on  the  Sab- 
bath day. 

"William  Grimmond." 


We  ask  the  reader's  attention  also  to  the 
following  table  : — 


98  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 


Number  registered  this  year  from 

date  26th  March,  1848 
Remaining  on  Roll 


Of  the  113  who  have  left,— 
Left  Town 

Deserted,  being  determined  Beggars 
Sent  to  other  Parishes,  on  which  ) 

they  had  a  claim  j 

Removed  by  deatl    (4  of  Cholera) 
Gone  to  other  Schools,  their  con- ) 

dition  being  improved                j 
Found  employment 

Of  those  at  present  in  School, — 

Taught  to  read  the  Bible 

Taught  to  write 


Boys. 


135 
89 


llnfanls 

Girls.  I  under 

Eight. 


102 
69 


54 


Removed. , . . 


7 
6 
0 

IG 
0 


8 

6 

7 

5 

6 

4 

0 

3 

7 

6 

24 

17 

24 

25 

16 

16 

Total 


325 
212 


113 

16 

14 

13 

10 
19 
41 

65 
34* 


•  For  other  valuable  statistics,  and  some  weighty  and  important  re- 
flections which  they  have  suggested,  we  refer  the  reader  to  a  letto.' 
In  the  Appendix,  from  Dr.  Boll,  one  of  our  valuable  Socrctarios. 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      09 

In  regard  to  our  machinery  and  manage- 
ment I  may  state  that  we  have  three  schools, 
—one  school  for  boys,  another  for  girls,  and  a 
third,  which  may  properly  be  called  the  Infant 
School.  All  the  scholars  leave  their  homes 
or  lodging-houses,  or  our  own  dormitories,  to 
assemble  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  in 
summer,  and  eight  in  winter.  The  first  exer- 
cise they  go  through  is  a  purifying  one.  They 
doff  their  rags  to  march  for  some  three  yards 
under  the  invigorating,  cleansing  shower  of  a 
large  bath.  Attiring  themselves  in  the  school 
dress,  they  work  an  hour,  and  then  (grace  be- 
ing said  by  one  of  the  children)  sit  down  to 
a  comfortable  breakfast  of  oatmeal  porridge. 
With  a  reasonable  allowance  for  play,  so  many 
hours  are  spent  in  industrial  occupations, — 
so  many  in  receiving  instruction,  both  secu- 
lar and  religious.*  We  seek  to  communicate 
a  sound  and  saving  knowledge  of  the  Bible, 
because  we  believe  that,  while  true  of  all  chil- 
dren, it  is  emphatically  and  especially  true  of 

*  This  will  be  found  fully  detailed  in  a  table  inserted  in 
the  Appendix. 


100  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

these,  that  "  the  fear  of  God  is  the  begin- 
ning of  wisdom."  They  dine  at  mid-day  ;  and 
after  another  diet  of  oatmeal  porridge  about 
seven  o'clock  in  the  evening,  they  are  sent 
away  happy — to  cheer  sometimes  even  their 
dark  and  dreary  homes,  with  lessons  of  piety 
and  hymns  of  praise  learned  in  our  school. 

The  discipline,  also,  of  our  school  is  one  of 
its  most  interesting  features.  Our  teacher, 
Mr.  Gibb,  has  achieved  the  most  singular  suc- 
cess in  breaking  in  these  children,  ameliora- 
ting their  dispositions,  and  humanizing  their 
wliole  character  and  habits.  We  remarked  in 
our  first  "  Plea,"  that  they  were  not  to  be  moved 
by  hard  words  and  harder  blows,  being  too 
much  accustomed  to  these  at  home,  and  having 
"  learn  to  be  as  indifferent  to  them  as  the 
smith's  dog  to  the  shower  of  sparks."  From 
the  beginning,  we  put  our  faitli  in  kindness. 
It  has  been  tried,  and  not  found  wanting. 
Those  that  would  have  bristled  up  before  a 
harsh  word  or  blow,  have  become  soft  and 
pliant  in  her  tender  hand  ;  and  care  has  always 
been  taken  in  the  few  cases  of  corporeal  pim- 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     101 

ishment  to  administer  it  witli  the  smallest  pos- 
sible measure  of  pain,  and  the  largest  possible 
measure  of  kindness.  The  following  extract 
of  a  letter  received  from  a  lady,  will  form  a 
suitable  introduction  to  some  details  belonging 
to  school  discipline. 

"  I  went  to  the  Ragged  School  to-day  with 
some  friends,  and  spent  two  hours  among  tlie 
boys,  much  to  our  amusement,  and  admiration 
both  of  them  and  Mr.  Gibb.  We  were  most 
fortunate  in  our  choice  of  a  day  for  our  visit, 
for  several  interesting  events  occurred.  A  de- 
serter was  brought  back,  and  regularly  put 
upon  trial  ;  and  truly  it  was  as  good  as  a  play 
any  day,  to  hear  the  examinations,  as  conducted 
by  Mr.  Gibb  in  presence  of  the  assembled 
school,  and  the  queer  answers  and  odd  reasons 
for  running  away,  tendered  by  the  culprit  in 
his  own  defence.  After  he  was  heard  for  him- 
self, every  boy  who  in  conscience  thought  he 
had  done  wrong  was  desired  to  hold  up  liis 
right  hand.  The  verdict  was  unanimous  ;  and 
it  was  Guilty.  And  then  came  the  question 
of  punishment.  This  was  speedily  decided  by 
9* 


102  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST;    OR, 

a  special  jury,  selected  from  his  own  class,  who 
retired  to  consult,  and  who  returned  in  a  few 
minutes,  and,  through  their  dux  as  chancellor, 
announced  a  sentence  of  twelve  palmies.  Mr. 
Gibb  begged  us  to  remain  and  see  the  dose  ad- 
ministered. Curiosity,  and  a  lively  interest  in 
the  scene,  overcame  the  scruples  of  our  ten- 
derer feelings  ;  and  we  were  amply  repaid  by 
hearing  the  judicious,  tender,  and  Christian 
admonition  with  which  Mr.  Gibb  accompanied 
the  correction, — explaining,  both  to  the  culprit 
and  school,  that  punishment  was  administered 
on  the  well-known  principle  of  these  schools, — 
the  motto  of  your  '  Plea,' — '  Prevention  is  betr 
ter  than  cure.' " 

Take  the  case  of  S .  This  boy  had  de- 
serted the  school  to  resume  his  predatory  and 
begging  habits.  Mr.  Gibb  had  desired  some 
of  those  who  lived  in  his  neighborhood  to  get 
hold  of  him,  and  bring  him  back.  Though 
they  went  to  his  house  next  morning,  and  re- 
peated their  visits  for  two  or  three  successive 
days,  they  never  got  sight  of  him.  "  The  nest 
w  as  flown."     To  Mr.  Gibb's  surprise,  however, 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     103 

one  morning  he  saw  S sitting  in  the  work- 
room, under  a  strong  guard  ;    a  sentinel  on 
each  side  of  him,  and  one  in  front.     At  his 
home,  by  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  boys 
had  found  him  sitting  beside  the  fire-place  in 
his  shirt.     In  vain,  though  backed  by  an  elder 
brother,  they  told  him  to  dress,  and  come  along. 
On  the  appearance  of  force,  he   flew  to   the 
weapon,  which,  according  to  Sir  Walter  Scott, 
proved  so  effective  in  the  hands  of  a  famous 
Bailie,  and,  drawing  a  red-hot  poker  from  the 
fire,  was  like  to  put  them  all  to  flight.     Two 
of  them  at  length  got  hold  of  him,  the  third 
following  with  his  clothes  ;  and,  doubtless,  he 
had  been  carried  in  this  state  to  school,  but 
that  his  cries  reached  the  ears  of  a  policeman, 
who  persuaded  these  rough  valets  de  chamhre 
to  find  him  a  dressing-room  in  a  common  stair. 
Mr.  Gibb  found  him  fertile  in  excuses  for  his 
bad  behavior.     Finding  none  of  them  avail 
him,  with  the  cunning  of  his  class,  he  invented 
one' on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  which  he  sup- 
posed would  awaken  the  interest  of  some  pious 
ladies  then  visiting  the  school.     "  I  dinna  like," 


104  SEED-TIME    AXD    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

said  the  rogue,  "  to  come  to  this  scule.  I  want 
to  gang  to  a  .scule  whar  I'll  get  mair  learnin', 
and  learn  to  read  tlie  Bible. ''^  At  this  moment 
a  gentleman  entered  connected  with  one  of  the 
Ragged  Schools  in  London  ;  and  wishing  to 
know  how  we  managed  disorderly  boys,  he 
was  told  that  we  had  then  a  case  in  hand,  and, 
if  he  pleased,  he  might  stop  and  see  the  result. 

A  jury  of  the  school  decided  against  S ; 

and  when  the  sentence  was  about  to  be  admin- 
istered, the  boys  were  asked  if  any  of  them 
would  have  the  generosity  to  share  his  punish- 
ment. The  appeal  was  not  made  in  vain. 
Two  or  three  stepped  forward,  each  more 
anxious  than  another  to  bear  a  part  of  the 
penalty. 

The  cliange  which  our  school  has  wrought 
on  these  children,  through  the  power  of  kind- 
ness and  religion,  could  not  be  better  set  forth 
than  by  a  scene  to  which  I  will  introduce  my 
readers.  Summer  weather  brings  the  butterfly 
from  its  clirysalis,  and  tempts  the  various 
insect  tribes  to  roam  on  the  wings  of  free- 
dom  through    the   sunny   air ,    and    to    chil- 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     105 

dren  of  unsettled,  roving  habits,  the  summer 
days  and  the  green  fields  have  irresistible 
charms.  Mr.  Gibb  found  that,  as  the  skies 
grew  warmer,  the  school  grew  thinner ;  the 
roll  of  attendance  shortened  with  the  length 
of  the  day.  He  found  it  necessary  to  enact, 
"  That  no  boy  sliall  go  away  from  school,  until 
he  is  prepared  to  remain  away  altogether,  or 
to  submit,  on  his  return,  to  a  certain  measure' 
of  punishment."  The  law  was  passed  with 
acclamation,  and  he  thought  all  was  right. 
Next  day,  however,  a  dozen  had  absconded. 
On  being  brought  back,  they  said  they  wished 
to  remain  at  school ;  but  the  four  ringleaders 
refused  to  submit  to  the  punishment.  They 
were  obstinate,  and  refused  to  yield,  which  to 
Mr.  Gibb  was  a  great  grief,  as  they  were  big- 
ish  boys,  and  stood  most  of  all  in  need  of  such 
a  school.  He  resolved  to  try  and  bend  them 
by  an  appeal  to  their  better  feelings,  say- 
ing,— 

"  Boys,  we  will  not  compel  you  to  accept  of 
the  food  and  instruction  of  which  hundreds 
like  you  would  be  glad,  who  have  it  not.     If 


1 06  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

you  like  to  remain,  submit  to  the  rules,  and 
you  are  welcome.     Will  you  do  it  ?" 

"  No,  sir." 

"  Would  you  have  me  tell  a  lie,  by  not  act- 
ing up  to  my  word  ?  " 

*^  No,  sir." 

"  Would  you  like  to  remain,  and  be  allowed 
to  do  as  you  please  ?  " 

"  No  ;  because  we  would  go  wrong,  sir." 

"  Why,  then,  not  submit  to  the  rule  you 
agreed  to  ?  " 

"  We'll  stop  if  you'll  no  lich  us,  sir, — if  you'll 
no  gi'e  us  palmiesJ' 

"  Boys,  were  you  ever  punished  before  ?  and 
why  ?  " 

"  Because  we  deserved  it." 

"And  don't  you  deserve  it  now  ?  Take  it, 
and  be  done  with  it." 

After  trying  them  in  this  manner  for  some 
time,  without  any  success,  Mr.  Gibb  addressed 
them  in  a  farewell  speech,  suited  to  the  taste, 
and  calibre,  and  character,  of  those  he  spoke  to, 
saying,— 

"  Well  then,  boys,  I  think  I  have  done  ; — I 


PLEAS    FOli    RA(^.GED   SCHOOLS.  lOT 

can  do  nothing  for  you  ;— I  dare  not  let  you 
pass.     You  are  going  away,  and  it  may  be  that 
I  will  never  see  you  more.     Perhaps  I  will  see 
you  rich  and  respectable  men.    Perhaps  I  will 
see  you  masters  of  a  fine  shop,  standing  be- 
hind the  counter,  with  your  hair  nicely  curled, 
and   dressed  like  gentlemen.      Or,   may   be, 
when  I  am  an  old  man,  and  walk  leaning  on  a 
staff,  I  will  see  you  rolling  by  in  a  fine  carriage 
drawn  by  two  grey  horses,  attended  by  grand 
servants,  and  a  beautiful  lady  seated  by  your 
side;    and  when  you  see  me  you  will   say, 
'  Look !  there's  the  Ragged  School  master,  that 
used  to  lick  us  when  we  were  laddies :  here, 
Mr.    Gibb,   there's   something   to  keep    your 
pocket.'     Now,  these  things  may  be  ;  but  ah  I 
my  boys,  I  much  fear  that  if  ever  I  see  you 
riding,  it  will  be  in  one  of  those  dark,  gloomy 
carriages,  with  the  locked  door  and  iron  grat. 
ings,  conveying  you— you  know  where  to  ?" 
"  Yes,  sir.'' 

"  And  is  it  not  likely,  if  you  go  away  from 
the  school,  that  you  will  be  obliged  to  sink  to 
begging   again?     And  then  your   next  step 


108  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

down  will  be  to  stealing  ;  and  down  and  down 
you  go.  But  whether  I  may  see  you  again  in 
this  world  or  not,  I  do  not  know.  One  thing, 
however,  is  certain — we  shall  meet  again, — and 
where  ?" 

Their  heads,  till  then  erect,  now  began  to 
hang  down  ;  and  as  one  or  tv/o  answered,  "  At 
the  last  day,  sir,"  they,  and  the  greater  num- 
ber of  the  children,  as  if  by  a  sudden  shock  of 
electricity,  burst  into  tears.  The  Superintend- 
ent of  Work,  who  had  worn  the  red  coat  for 
upwards  of  thirty  years,  turned  on  his  heel, 
and  the  tear  glistened  in  the  old  soldier's  eye, 
while  nothing  was  to  be  heard  but  sobs  and 
sighing.  Now  was  Mr.  Gibb's  time  to  drive 
home  the  wedge  ;  and  so,  though  almost  over- 
come himself,  he  said,  "  All  that  I  ask  of  you 
now,  my  boys,  is  a  shake  of  your  hand,  and  we 
part  good  friends."  Nothing  remained  now 
for  the  poor  fellows  but  to  go.  Moving  slowly 
to  the  door,  and  all  the  while  crying  bitterly, 
they  shook  hands  with  their  companions  and 
went, — but  returned.  On  the  threshold  tliey 
yielded  to  tlie  master's  last  appeal,  fairly  con- 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     109 

qnered,  and  examples  of  the  all  but  omnipotent 
power  of  Christian  wisdom,  combined  with 
Christian  kindness. 

It  is  but  an  act  of  justice  to  our  admirable 
teacher,  to  the  school,  to  the  cause,  and  to  the 
children  themselves,  that  I  should  close  this 
part  of  my  "  Second  Plea  "  by  the  following 
letter  : — 

Ragged  School,  Ramsay  Lane, 

25th  December,  1848. 
Reverend  Sir, — I  can  say  that,  of  the  many 
boys  that  have  attended  the  Ragged  School,  I 
have  met  with  few,  indeed  none,  who  have  not 
shown  the  greatest  readiness  to  do  me  a  per- 
sonal kindness,  either  in  school  or  out  of  it. 
To  show  this  many  instances  might  be  given. 
Allow  me  only  to  trouble  you  with  the  follow- 

[j^a- :     J ■  C lost  his  mother,  who  was 

an  Irishwoman,  and  his  father,  who  was  a 
Scotchman  (by  trade  a  shoemaker),  when  he 
was  about  six  years  old.  When  I  found  liim 
he  had  been  trying  to  provide  himself  with 
food  and  lodgings  for  upwards  of  a  year,  by 
carrying  luggage  for  passengers  to  and  from 
10 


110  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

the  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow  Railway.  He 
seemed  rather  destitute,  and  I  asked  him  to 
come  to  school ;  but  it  was  not  till  some  time 
after,  when  he  had  got  a  sore  foot,  that  he 
found  his  way  thither. 

Afterwards  I  was  seized  with  typhus  fever, 
and  two  or  three  of  the  boys  called  to  inquire 
for  me  every  day.  C came  regularly  morn- 
ing and  evening,  and  was  always  very  anxious 
to  see  me  ;  and  so  long  as  he  was  told  I  was 
no  better,  he  went  away  crying  ;  but  when  he 
was  told  that  I  was  getting  better,  the  tear 
was  changed  to  a  smile.  On  the  evening  be- 
fore I  went  to  the  country  for  change  of  air,  he 
was  asked  to  come  next  morning  and  assist  me 
to  the  Canal  boat.  lie  got  me  safe  on  board  ; 
and  when  we  had  started,  I  was  surprised,  on 
looking  out  at  the  window,  to  see  half  a  dozen 

of  the  Ragged  School  boys,   with  C at 

their  head,  running  alongside,  and  crying, 
"  Yonder  he's  ;"  and  this  they  continued  to  do 
till  the  boat  went  off  at  full  speed,  when  they 
returned,  after  running  nearly  half  a  mile. 
One  day  shortly  after,  on  taking  a  walk  in  the 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     Ill 

country,  a  boy  was  seen  approaching,  dressed 
in  clothes  t'hat  I  lial  seen  in  the  Ragged 
School ;  and  as  he  came  nearer  he  began  to 
smile.     I  was  a  little  surprised  to  find  that  it 

was  C .     He  had  collected  his  halfpence 

till  he  had  raised  sixpence,  and  then  set  away 
on  the  Canal  to  see  his  master,  with  no  other 
prospect  than  to  walk  home  ;  of  course  his  re- 
turn fare  was  made  up  for  him.  C — —  is  now 
working  to  a  flesher,  and  lodging  in  the  same 
house  with  a  boy  who  was  once  his  companion 
in  adversity,  and  a  Ragged  School  class-mate  ; 
and  that  boy  being  scarcely  able  to  clear  his 

way,  while  C has  something  to  spare,  he 

gives  a  little,  to  enable  his  old  fellow-sufferer 
and  scholar  to  live  as  comfortably  as  him- 
self. 

In  regard  to  any  real  saving  change  being 
made  on  these  children,  I  would  not  like  to 
speak  with  too  much  confidence.  Any  one 
who  knows  much  about  either  them  or  their 
parents,  knows  that  they  are  too  ready  to  ap- 
pear to  bear  in  mind  whatever  is  most  likely 
to  benefit  their  body.     One  thing,  however,  is 


112  SEED-TIME  AND   HARVEST  ;   OE, 

certain,  viz.,  tliej  are  a  very  great  deal  kinder 
to  each  other  than  they  formerly  were ;  and 
last  week  I  had  a  visit  from  all  their  mothers 
or  landladies  that  could  attend,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  ascertaining  whether  any  difference, 
either  for  better  or  worse,  had  been  observed 
in  the  conduct  of  any  of  them  since  they  came 
to  school.  Not  one  of  them  answered,  For  the 
worse.  In  almost  every  case  the  answer  was, 
For  the  better ;  and  that  the  childien  were 
more  obedient  than  they  used  to  be.  One  said 
her  sons  were  "  very  much  improved,  and  not 
like  what  they  were  before  at  all :  they  are 
like  new  weans  altogether."  Another  said, 
"  They  are  more  kind  to  each  other,  and  to 
their  sisters;  and  instead  of  spending  their 
evenings  in  running  on  the  streets,  as  they 
used  to  do,  they  now  spend  them  in  singing 
and  reading."  Another,  that  her  son  "  now 
works  at  his  slate,  and  reads  his  Bible,  and 
sings  hymns."  Another,  that  her  son  "  is  a 
good  deal  healthier,  and  a  better  boy  entirely ^ 
Another  (a  blind  woman)  says,  she  knows 
not  how  to  express  her  gratitude  to  the  people 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     113 

^f  the  Ragged  School  ;  for  her  son  is  now  able 
to  read  to  her  at  night,  and  fells  her  nice  stories 
about  Jesus,  and  sings  sweet  hymns,  -and  so 
forth.  From  these  and  similar  facts  I  have 
reason  to  believe  that  the  good  already  done 
by  means  of  tlicse  schools  will  tell  on  genera- 
tions yet  unborn  ;  and  tliat  some  of  these  poor 
outcasts  will  bless  God  through  all  eternity 
that  there  was  once  such  a  thing  as  the  Ragged 
School. 

Rev.  and  Dear  Sir,  I  hope  you  will  excuse 
the  somewhat  brief  and  familiar  manner  in 
which  I  have  endeavored  to  give  you  a  few 
facts  as  they  stand.  I  thought  to  have  had 
them  forwarded  sooner,  but  the  business  of  the 
school,  and  family  sickness,  prevented. 

Rev.  Sir, 
^  Your  obedient  Servant, 

GEO.  GIBB. 

To  these  cases,  furnished  by  the  teachers,  I 

may  add  another,  told  to  me  by  a  humble  but 

honest  neighbor  of  the  mother  of  one  of  these 

boys.     Dismissed  from  a  comfortable  situation 

10* 


114  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST;   OR, 

for  glaring  misconduct,  and  unable,  from  bod- 
ily infirmity,  to  earn  her  bread,  the  mother 
betook  lierself  to  begging  on  tlie»streets.  This 
proved  a  source  of  gains,  which  she  wasted  on 
habits  of  drunkenness.  The  more  money  to 
the  mother,  the  more  misery  to  the  child. 
When  the  mother  was  intoxicated  she  was  in- 
furiated ;  and  the  hapless  boy  often  fled  from 
her  cruelty  to  the  common  stair,  where,  with 
his  head  pillowed  on  a  step,  he  lay  the  long 
winter  night,  to  sleep, — when  the  cold  would 
let  him.  Some  kind  Samaritan  brought  the 
child  to  our  school,  ignorant  as  a  heathen ; 
knowing  neither  his  letters  nor  anything  of  a 
God  and  Saviour.  He  has  now  been  some 
twelve  months  with  us  ;  and  our  humble  friend, 
the  tenant  of  a  room  five  stories  up,  and  living, 
to  use  her  own  expression,  hut  and  hen  from 
them,  tells  us  that  she  lias  often  heard  him,  on 
his  return  in  the  evening,  speaking  to  his 
mother  as  if  he  were  an  old  grey-haired  Chris- 
tian. With  more  sense  than  some  beyond  his 
years,  he  has  learnt  the  divine  lesson,  "  Give 
not  that  which  is  holy  unto  the  dogs  ;  neither 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     115 

cast  ye  your  pearls  before  swine,  lest  tliey  tram- 
ple them  under  their  feet,  and  turn  again  and 
rend  you."      So,  when  he   finds  his  motlier 
drunk,  he  is  silent ;  but  on  her  sober  evenings 
he  reads  the  Bible  to  her,— tells  her  how  the 
master  said  this  and  said  that,— and,  gracious- 
ly inverting  the  order  of  nature,  is  the  monitor 
and  instructor  of  his  own  mother.      Through 
the  thin  partition  which  separates  these  upper 
rooms  of  poverty  from  each  other,  she  has  often 
listened  with  amazement  to  this  child's  affec- 
tionate warnings.     Once  he  said, "  Ah  I  mither, 
mither,   what   a   dreadful   thing,   when   Jesus 
Christ  comes  to  judgment,  if  I,  standing  at  his 
right  hand,  should  see  my  mither  on  the  left ; 
and  you're  sure  to  be  there  if  ye  live  on  as 
you're  doing."      The  remarkable  demeanor  of 
this  boy,  and  the  visible  change  wrought  on 
his  habits  and  appearance,  have  recommended 
our  Kagged  School   to   the  neighbors  round 
about.     He  has  earned  for  it  and  us  the  kind- 
liest regards  of  that  humble  noigliborhood— a 
name  there  "above  all  Greek  or  Roman  fame  ;" 
for  of  how  much  truer  value  tlian  the  applause 


116 


of  a  world  is  the  blessing  of  those  who  are 
ready  to  perish ! 

Such  are  the  fruits  and  discipline  of  our 
school  ;  and  I  have  not  to  tell  the  reader  that 
money  spent  upon  the  young  is  spent  with 
greatest  promise.  I  have  not  the  shadow  of  a 
doubt,  that  by  one  single  pound  contril)uted  to 
the  Ragged  School,  you  will  do  more  good 
than  by  one  hundred  pounds  spent  on  Peniten- 
tiary or  Prison  ;  just  as  by  the  power  of  a 
one-pound  weight  you  can  give  a  bent  to  the 
tender  branch,  which  the  weight,  not  of  one, 
but  of  one  thousand  pounds,  cannot  impart  to 
the  giant  arm  of  some  gnarled  hoary  tree. 
That  breaks,  but  refuses  to  bend. 

Growing  more  and  more  alive  to  the  proph- 
et's question,  "  Can  the  Ethiopian  change  his 
skin,  or  the  leopard  his  spots  ?  "  our  eye  turns 
from  other  schemes  to  these  schools  with  the 
fondest  anticipations.  They  offer  to  our  out- 
cast population  "  a  door  of  hope  in  the  val- 
ley of  Achor."  Other  plans  of  benevolence 
have  been  tried  on  the  masses.  Home  and 
City  Missions  have  had  their  period  of  proba- 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      117 


Hon  ;  and  they  have  proved  how  hard,  we  dare 
not  say  how  liopeless,  a  task  it  is  to  turn  the 
river  which  has  cut  itself  a  channel  in  the 
rock  ;  to  change  the  character  of  a  population 
that  are  hard  and  set  in  crime.     While  we 
would  follow  the  hoary-headed  sinner  to  the 
edge  of  his  grave,  with  calls  to  repent  and 
offers  of  mercy,  still  they  are  the  most  promis- 
ing efforts  that  take  the  direction  of  the  young. 
Therefore,  the  Ragged  School  has  claims  on  a 
humane  and  Christian  public, — we  shall  not 
say  before  all  other  schemes, — but  second  to 
none.     When  we   undertake   to   supply  each 
child  with  food  and  education  at  an  expense 
of  £5  per  year, — when,  for  so  small  a  sum  of 
money,  a   poor   outcast  may  be   saved  from 
present  misery  and  eternal  ruin, — surely  mul- 
titudes will  be  found,  out  of  their  own  abun- 
dance to  give,  or  by  the  help  of  others  to  raise, 
this   sum.     God   pity  the   poor,  if,  amid    the 
abounding  comforts,  and  wealth,  and  luxuries 
of  this    Christian   land,  the   only  doors   left 
open  to  these  outcast  children  are  the  dreary 
portals  of  the  Police  Office  and  the  Prison ! 


118  SEED-TIME    AXD    HARVEST:   OR, 

The  stability  of  the  empire  is  bound  up  with 
such  schemes  as  ours.  What  Philanthropy 
prompts  to,  and  Piety  recommends,  true  Patri- 
otism demands.  If  those  elements  of  corrup- 
tion and  mischief,  which  we  liave  done  so  little 
(Mther  to  resist  or  restrain,  are  allowed  to 
spread  for  the  next  half  century  as  they  have 
done  during  the  past,  we  tremble  for  the  issue. 
80  soon  as  the  leaven  has  leavened  the  whole 
lump,  what  shall  the  end  of  these  things  be  ? 

I  believe  that  the  higher,  the  middle,  and 
some  of  the  humbler  classes  of  society,  have 
not  degenerated,  but  improved,  in  their  moral 
and  religious  habits  ;  but  there  is  a  class  lying 
beneath  these,  at  the  bottom  of  the  social 
fabric,  which,  in  whatever  aspect  it  be  regard- 
ed, calls  for  the  serious  attention  of  the  coun- 
try. They  have  no  religion  ;  they  instil  no 
moral  principles  into  their  offspring ;  their 
minds  are  uncultivated  ;  their  habits  are  bru- 
tal, profligate,  and  licentious.  In  London,  in 
Glasgow,  in  Edinburgh,  and  in  other  such 
cities,  they  are  increasing  at  a  most  dangerous 
ratio  on  the  educated  and  church  going  popu 


PLE\S  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      119 
f 

lation.  Through  many  districts  of  the  country 
also,  and  in  a  large  number  of  our  provincial 
towns,  the  same  class  are  springing  up  and 
growing  with  a  terrible  rapidity.  They  are 
mushrooms  in  growth  ;  but  in  durability  are 
cedars. 

This  may  be  illustrated  by  the  case  of  May- 
bole, — a  small  town,  numbering,  with  the  coun- 
try part  of  the  parish,  some  five  thousand  peo- 
ple. It  lies  in  a  sweet  district  in  Ayrshire  ; 
"  beautiful  in  situation  ;"  surrounded  by  a  fer- 
tile country  ;  and  hallowed  to  the  memory  of 
Scotchmen  as  the  scene  where  John  Knox  and 
his  dexterous  antagonist  Quentin  Kennedy, 
Abbot  of  Crossraguel, — the  respective  cham- 
pions of  Protestantism  and  Popery, — fought, 
within  a  house  still  standing  there,  the  battle 
of  their  respective  faiths.  From  the  hill  which 
rises  between  it  and  the  sea,  the  shores  of  Ire- 
land can  be  discerned  ;  and  across  the  narrow 
channel  hordes  of  Irish  papists  have  passed  to 
deluge  with  misery,  and  beggary,  and  the  lowest 
habits,  that  beautiful  land.  The  Scotch  have 
been  too  ready  to  receive  the  virus ;  and  l)e- 


120  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;   OR, 

\ 

come  centres  of  infection.  A  class  accordingly 
has  sprung  up  there,  ignorant  alike  of  the  de- 
cencies of  society,  and  the  habits  of  religion. 
On  week-days  the  streets  and  roads  swarm 
with  beggars,  in  rags  and  wretchedness,  naked- 
ness and  squalidness,  and  other  repulsive  signs 
both  of  poverty  and  of  profligacy.  On  the 
blessed  Sabbath,  grown  men  and  women,  and 
young  people  of  all  ages,  are  strolling  through 
the  streets  ;  or  standing  idly  in  their  doors  ; 
or  roaming  over  the  country,  and  disturbing 
its  hallowed  peace,  in  their  every-day — we  sus- 
pect with  many,  their  only — attire.  My  friend 
Mr.  Brown,  banker  and  writer  there,  with  most 
creditable  courage  and  humanity,  is  grappling 
with  the  evil,  and  endeavoring  to  establish  a 
Ragged  School.  Would  all  elsewhere  do  the 
same,  the  country  might  yet  be  saved.  The 
main  cause  of  the  wretchedness  there  or  any- 
where else,  is  not  the  want  of  money,  but  of 
morality.  We  have  reason  to  believe  that 
there  is  as  much  money  spent,  and  a  large 
portion  of  it  by  this  very  uneducated,  poor, 
and  profligate  class  of  people  in  this  parish  of 


PLEAS    FOR    RA(;(^.En    SCHOOLS.  121 

May  bole,  on  spirits  and  tobacco  as  equals 
nearly  the  whole  landed  rental.  How  mon- 
strous that  wliiskey  and  tobacco  shops,  which 
find  their  best  customers  among  the  uneduca- 
ted, the  poor,  and  the  profligate,  should  draw  a 
revenue  little  short  of  what  the  landlords  do 
from  their  fields  and  farms  !  Sixteen  thousand 
pounds,  it  is  said,  are  yearly  wasted  on  nox- 
ious or  useless  stimulants  ;  while  the  poor  and 
other  rates  are  advancing  with  railroad  speed. 
When  will  the  respectable  classes  of  the  com- 
munity awake  to  tlie  necessity  of  arming  ir 
defence  of  the  nation's  religion,  virtue,  and 
property  ?  Unless  means  are  employed  to 
change  the  habits,  and  arrest  the  formidable 
advances  of  this  class,  the  dream  of  Pharaoh 
shall  be  realized  in  other  lands  than  Egypt, 
where  the  lean  kine  devoured  the  fat,  and  were 
no  fatter  thereby ! 

Improvidence  and  dissipation  create  that 
class  which  threaten  the  welfare  of  our  coun- 
try, and  multiply  the  objects  of  our  Ragged 
Schools.  I  know  that  Acts  of  Parliament  can 
neither  make  men  moral  nor  religious ;  yet 
11 


122  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST;    OR,, 

much  can  be  done  by  Government  to  remove 
sources  of  temptations  from  the  people,  and 
foster  habits  of  thrift  and  sobriety.  The  chil- 
dren of  onr  manufacturing  districts  being  able, 
by  means  of  the  wages  they  earn,  to  cast  off 
the  parental  yoke  at  too  early  an  age,  there  is 
the  more  need  to  teach  them  habits  of  prudence 
and  foresight.  The  earnings  of  the  father  ex- 
ceeding but  by  little  those  of  his  child,  and 
inadequate,  without  these,  to  feed  the  unpro- 
ductive members  of  the  family,  parents  are 
afraid  to  correct  and  curb  their  children  ; 
while  headstrong  youth  is  ready  to  resent  the 
interference,  and  abandon  the  parental  roof. 
Nor  is  this  all  the  evil.  In  some  cases  the 
parent  wastes  on  vice  the  wages  of  his  chil- 
dren ;  while  in  all  cases  he  lies  under  a  pow- 
erful temptation  to  withdraw  them  from  school 
before  they  have  received  an  adeguate  educa- 
tion. Imperfectly  educated,  anc^rodependent, 
at  an  age  too  early,  of  parental  authority,  it 
becomes  the  more  necessary  to  guard  our  man- 
ufacturing youth  from  temptations  to  evil,  and 
to  compass  them  round  with  inducements  to 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     123 

thrift  and  economy.  The  earlier  the  plant  is 
drawn  from  the  nursery-bed,  the  more  need 
there  is  to  plant  it  in  some  sheltered  and  sunny 
nook. 

Now,  how  are  our  manufacturing  and  handi- 
craft youth  situated?  By  public-houses  and 
spirit-shops  they  are  surrounded  with  innumer- 
able temptations  ;  while  to  many  of  them  Sav- 
ings Banks  are  hardly  known  by  name.  Dis- 
sipation has  her  nets  drawn  across  every  street. 
In  many  of  our  towns,  sobriety  has  to  run  the 
gauntlet  of  half  a  dozen  spirit-shops  in  the 
space  of  a  bow-shot.  These  are  near  at  hand 
—open  by  day  and  blazing  by  night,  both  on 
Sabbath  and  Saturday.  Drunkenness  finds  im- 
mediate gratification  ;  while  economy  has  to 
travel  a  mile,  it  may  be,  for  her  Savings  Bank  ; 
and  tliat  opens  its  doors  to  thrift  but  once  oi 
twice  a  week  perhaps. 

The  consequences  of  these  temptations,  and 
this  neglect,  are  becoming  so  formidable,  and, 
it  would  appear,  by  all  existing  means  so  in- 
curable, that  some  wise  and  sagacious  men  are 
disposed  to  ask  the  interference  of  the  Gov- 


124  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

ernment.  They  could  compel  all  under  a  cer 
tain  age  who  receive  wages,  to  deposit  a  pro- 
portion of  them  in  bank.  It  may  be  said  that 
this  is  an  interference  with  man's  natural  lib- 
erty. But  they  answer,  that  that  has  been 
already  encroached  on  by  various  Acts  of  Par- 
liament. The  hours  of  work,  both  in  mills 
and  collieries,  are  regulated  by  law  ;  and  the 
seamen  of  some,  if  not  all  of  our  harbors,  are 
compelled  by  Act  of  Parliament  to  invest  a 
proportion  of  their  wages  to  maintain  them- 
selves and  families,  when  disabled  from  labor 
by  accident,  or  by  the  infirmities  of  a  prema- 
ture old  age.  Such  a  proposal  may  be  imprac- 
ticable ;  but  this  admits  of  no  doubt,  that  it  is 
vain  to  deal  with  disease  as  with  health  ;  and 
if  it  be  granted  that  God  never  fitted  the  child 
for  circumstances  where,  ere  it  has  reached  the 
age  of  puberty,  it  becomes  independent  of 
parental  support,  and  can  defy  parental  au- 
thority, such  an  abnormal  condition  justifies 
and  demands  extraordinary  remedies.  This  at 
least  the  law  can,  and  ouglit  to  do, — it  should 
put  down  nine  out  of  ten  of  these  drinking- 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      126 

sliops ;  and  grant  no  man  a  license  to  deal  in 
spirits  whose  character  does  not  furnish  good 
security  that  he  will  not  trade  in  crime,  and 
make  his  house  a  centre  of  drunkenness,  and  a 
curse  to  the  neighborhood — raising  a  house  to 
himself  out  of  the  wreck  and  ruin  of  other 
men's  homes  and  characters,  bodies  and  souls. 
While  trusting  to  tlie  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ 
as  the  only  efficient  regeneration  of  our  fallen 
race,  it  is  well  to  avail  ourselves  of  every 
check  to  this  damnable  and  destructive  vice. 
The  requiring  of  certificates  by  applicants  for 
license,  the  discipline  of  the  Church,  and  last, 
though  not  least,  Temperance  and  Total  Ab- 
stinence Societies,  are  all  commendable.  'They 
have  accomplished  much  good  :  still  they  hav€ 
not  eradicated  the  evil.  Why,  as  an  addi- 
tional clieck,  should  not  the  masters  of  these 
public-houses,  and  other  venders  of  ardent 
spirits,  be  compelled  to  bear  the  burden  of  the 
poverty  which  their  trade  is  the  means  of  pro- 
ducing ?  How  many  families  do  they  reduce 
to  poverty,  beggary,  and  want  ?  It  were  but 
justice,  that  the  man  who  knowingly,  and  for 
11* 


126  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST;    OR, 

liis  own  gain,  supplies  the  poor  drunkard  with 
tlie  means  of  destruction,  should  be  compelled 
to  maintain  his  family.  Should  a  man  be 
allowed  to  trade  in  crime,  and  not  only  go 
scatheless  of  the  consequences,  but  get  the  pub- 
lic to  bear  them  ?  Are  there  not  thousands  of 
the  venders  of  spirits  wlio  supply  the  stimulant 
where  they  know  that  it  goes  to  destroy  the 
drinker's  health,  and  beggar  his  family  ?  Instead 
of  ardent  spirits,  let  a  man,  knowing  that  the 
])urc]iaser  buys  the  article  for  purposes  of  sui- 
cide, sell  arsenic  or  prussic  acid ;  and  the  very 
least  that  justice  requires  in  such  a  case  is, 
that  he  shall  maintain  the  family  of  him  in 
whose  death  he  was  art  and  part.  Why  should 
not  the  innocent  sufferers  of  a  parent  or  hus- 
band's dissipation  obtain  such  recourse  in  law 
against  those  who,  for  their  own  gain,  tempted 
him  to  ruin,  and  involved  them  in  poverty  ? 
This  would  close,  within  another  week,  nine- 
tenths  of  those  low  drinking-shops.  Never, 
in  the  most  frightful  panic,  had  the  banks  such 
a  run  for  money  as  these  would  have  for  dam- 
ages. 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     12T 

I  venture,  wliile  on  this  subject,  to  suggest  a 
question.     When,  in  ninety-nine  cases  out  of 
the  hundred,  the  drunkard  becomes  not  only  a 
disgrace  to  his  friends,  but  often  also,  in  some 
shape  or  other,  a  burden  on  the  community, 
destroying  the  happiness,  if  not  the  lives,  of 
his  family,  dissipating  their  substance,  and  re- 
ducing them  to  want,  why  should  we  stand  by, 
without  interfering  between  his  madness  and 
his  offspring  ?     Were  the  man  insane,  in  the 
common  sense  of  the  term,  the  law  allows  our 
interference.    It  steps  in  ;  takes  his  keys  ;  and 
manages  the  property  for   the  benefit  of  his 
household,— shutting  him  up  within  the  walls 
of  an  asylum.      While  the  fumes  are  in  his 
brain,  the  drunk  man  is  a  madman  if  the  temp- 
tation comes  in  his  way,  and  the  habitual  slave 
of  this  vice  is  as  incapable  of  controlling  his 
appetite  by  his  reason,  or  conquering  his  pas 
sions  by  his  judgment,  as  the  inmate  of  a  luna- 
tic asylum.     It  becomes  one  species,  and  the 
worst  species,  of  monomania.     Account  for  it 
as  physicians  or  metaphysicans  may,  the  man 
is  as  unable  to  resist  the  attractions  of  th« 


128  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

spirit-bottle,  as  a  piece  of  iron  those  of  the 
magnet,  or  a  stone  that  of  the  earth.  Accus- 
ing himself,  and  often  cursing  the  day  he  was 
born, — bitterly  mourning  his  disgrace,  and  the 
fate  which  he  sees  impending  over  a  happy 
home, — knowing,  as  well  as  others  do,  that  he 
is  ruining  both  body  and  soul, — yet  he  yields 
to  the  temptation  ;  and  is  swept  along,  spell- 
bound, impotent  to  resist.  It  were  the  kindest 
thing  to  them,  and  best  for  all  dependent  on 
them,  that  the  slaves  of  this  horrible  vice 
should  be  dealt  with  as  lunatics.  Left  at  large, 
they  waste  their  property,  and  health,  and  life. 
They  die  at  a  premature  age.  They  burden 
the  sober  and  industrious  with  the  support  of 
innumerable  widows  and  children.  But  let 
them  be  confined  to  the  walls  of  an  asylum, 
let  them  be  compelled  to  engage  there  in  regu- 
lar and  industrial  employments,  and  perfectly 
isolated  from  all  intoxicating  liquors,  the  old 
cravings  and  habits  would  die  out.  In  course 
of  time,  many,  most  of  them,  with  body  and 
mind  restored  to  a  healthy  tone,  would  return 
to  the  bosom  of  their  families  and  the  business 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     129 

of  life,  in  a  sense,  new  creatures.  Why  should 
not  their  friends,  any  party  having  an  interest, 
or  the  public  officers  of  justice,  have  power  to 
cognosce  every  man  or  woman  who  could  be 
convicted,  before  a  competent  tribunal,  of 
being  an  habitual  drunkard  ?  By  every  possi- 
ble  means  we  ought  to  protect  the  helpless  ofi- 
spring  of  the  drunkard,  and  brand  his  crime 
with  infamy.  Surely  it  is  high  time  that  our 
country  be  delivered  from  the  taunt  of  being, 
while  claiming  to  be  the  most  devout,  actu- 
ally the  most  drunken  beneath  the  sun.  The 
charge  is  not  true ;  yet  how  great  is  our 
shame,  and  how  enormous  are  the  burdens 
entailed  on  us  by  the  ignorance,  indolence, 
diseases,  poverty,  and  crimes,  of  which  this 
national  vice  is  the  prolific  parent! 

If  it  is  the  duty  of  Government  to  remove  as 
far  as  possible  temptations  to  crime,  it  is  no 
less  their  duty  to  employ  all  legitimate  means 
of  amendment  and  cure ;  and  none  present 
stronger  claims  on  the  support  of  tlie  country, 
and  the  countenance  of  the  State,  than  Rag- 
ged Schools.     Standing  apart  from  all  ques- 


130  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

tions  about  State  endowments  for  ordinary 
education,  they  fall  properly  under  the  nead 
of  Police  ;  and,  under  a  Government  suffi- 
ciently enlightened  to  foster  them,  would  prove 
one  of  its  best  institutions.  The  results  of 
education  as  given  without,  in  contrast  to 
that  given  within  prison  walls,  are  not  less 
certain  than  the  results  of  those  laws  which 
govern  the  march  of  seasons  or  the  tides  of 
ocean.  The  excellent  men  who  teach  within 
the  jail  would  do  ten  times  more  good  with- 
out it.  For  every  one  they  turn  out  of  prison 
a  reformed  criminal,  they  would  keep  ten  out 
of  it, — were  their  labors  bestowed  in  Ragged 
Schools,  on  the  class  that  furnish  its  tenants 
to  the  jail.  When  the  day  comes,  that  our 
legislators  shall  direct  a  larger  portion  of 
their  time  to  matters  of  moral  reform,  and 
tliose  social  evils  which  have  been  alloAved 
too  long  to  eat  like  a  cancer  into  the  heart 
of  our  population,  justice  will  be  done  iu 
Parliament  to  the  cause  of  Ragged  Schools. 
Supposing,  what  here  we  neither  affirm  nor 
denv,  that  it  is  the  duty  of  tlie  State  to  sup- 


PLEAS    Foil    hA(;GED    SCHOOLS.  131 

port  all  the  educational  institutions  of  the 
country, — in  such  a  case  it  is  clear  as  noon- 
day, that  among  the  claimants  for  public  aid, 
the  first  to  be  heard  with  a  liberality  co- 
extensive with  their  necessities,  are  these  un- 
cared-for, unhappy  children.  To  support  in 
part  or  in  whole  educational  institutions  for 
the  children  of  land-owners,  or  merchants,  or 
tradesmen,  or  well-paid  workmen  out  of  the 
public  funds,  and  stint  or  starve  Ragged 
Schools,  is  a  monstrous  abuse.  In  a  procession 
of  beggars  the  rags  should  flutter  in  the  van  ; 
and  from  the  public  treasury  others  should  be 
supplied  only  after  we  are  served.  In  other 
words,  let  our  universities,  colleges,  and  acad- 
emies, and  parochial  or  congregational  schools, 
give  place  to  those  which  cannot  live  on  fees, 
nor  exist  without  external  aid.  Our  object 
is,  not  to  form  accomplished  scholars  and  a 
highly  cultivated  nation,  but  to  save  poor 
wretches  from  the  gallows,  the  prison,  or  the 
penal  settlement. 

They    who    would  move  the   Government 
m\ust   first  move    themselves ;     and    througli 


132 


schools  sustained  by  our  exertions,  we  must, 
meanwhile,  prove  that  the  scheme  is  not  only 
plausible,  but  practicable  ;  every  way  worthy 
of  the  nation's  adoption.  It  is  not  commonly 
the  duty  of  a  Government  to  precede,  but  to 
follow  the  country.  Its  movements  should  em- 
body and  express  the  mind  of  the  nation.  Nor 
can  we  expect  the  Government  to  take  action 
in  this  matter  till  the  steam  is  up,  and  pressing 
on  its  wheels.  The  sooner  the  better.  Not 
only  the  well-being,  but  the  very  being  of  our 
country  is  bound  up  with  this  and  other  kin- 
dred schemes.  With  these  it  sinks  or  swims, 
— survives  or  dies.  Political  freedom  and 
commercial  prosperity  are  inseparably  con- 
nected with  the  social  state  of  nations.  They 
wax  or  wane  with  it.  "  Righteousness  exalt- 
eth  a  nation  ;  but  sin  is  a  reproach  to  any 
people." 

Let  it  be  borne  in  mind,  that  men  form  good 
members  of  society,  yielding  obedience  to  the 
laws,  and  respecting  the  property,  life  and  lib- 
erty of  others,  under  the  influence  of  tAvo,  or 
one  of  two,  principles.     Obedience  to  the  law 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     133 

springs  from  regard  either  to  God,  or  man,  or 
to  both  ;  and  therefore  true  freedom  cannot 
permanently  stand  on  any  other  foundations 
than  those  of  morality  and  religion.  With 
these  beneath  her,  Liberty  has  a  solid  pedestal ; 
without  them,  she  is  raised  only  to  fall.  Look 
at  the  experience  of  France !  Since  she  lost 
so  much  of  her  best  blood  in  the  massacre  of 
the  Huguenots,  her  head  has  never  been  steady. 
As  a  nation, — great  in  many  respects  as  they 
are, — our  neighbors  across  the  Channel  want 
the  elements  of  moral  and  religious  principle  ; 
hence  they  have  oscillated,  and  till  delivered 
from  the  baneful  and  disturbing  influences  of 
Popery  and  Infidelity,  they  will  continue  to 
oscillate,  like  a  pendulum,  between  Despotism 
on  this  hand,  and  Licentiousness  on  that. 

Unless  restrained  by  the  love  and  fear  of 
God,  there  is  nothing  to  hedge  men  in  within 
the  boundaries  of  law,  save  attachment  to 
country,  the  love  or  fear  of  man.  But,  left  to 
grow  up  without  any  knowledge  of  God,  or 
regard  to  liis  law,  what  do  they  owe  the  coun- 
try who  furnish  the  material  of  our  Ragged 


134  SEED-TIME   AND   HARVEST  ;   OR, 

Schools?  What  has  the  country  done  for 
hem  to  attach  them  to  it  ?  It  has  left  them 
o  be  tempted  to  crime,  and  then  punished 
them  for  its  commission.  They  see  thousands, 
day  by  day,  passing  them  without  so  much  as 
a  look  of  pity.  Their  sorrows  all  unheeded, 
how  often  are  they  denied  the  cheapest  com- 
passion, and  bidden  begone,  with  the  tone  and 
gesture  that  drive  away  a  troublesome  cur  ? 
By  some  sudden  change  of  fortune,  let  us  taste 
their  bitter  cup, — let  us  find  ourselves  standing 
in  the  open  street,  in  a  cold  winter  day, — our 
naked  feet  upon  the  icy  pavement, — the  babe 
in  our  arms,  half  clad  and  half  frozen  to  death, 
— a  weary  wife,  with  wan  and  shivering  chil- 
dren cowering  beneath  poverty's  threadbare 
cloak, — and,  when  stores,  filled  with  every 
luxury,  stand  open  around  us,  and  savory 
smells  of  food  are  steaming  on  the  frosty  air, 
and  mothers,  with  groups  of  rosy,  laughing 
children,  furred  and  flannelled  against  the 
winter,  pass  by  regardless  of  our  pitiful  sor- 
rows, we  should  find  it  hard  to  be  honest,  hard 
to  believe  that  it  is  right  that  we  should  die 


PLEAS  FOB  BAGGED  SCHOOLS.     135 

of  hunger,  while  the  cup  of  others  is  overflow 
ing  with  comforts.     If  the  thought  of   God 
came  across  us,  we  might  fancy  him  looking 
down  with  indignation  on  the  scene  ;  and  that 
a  Father  who  regarded  all  his  children  with 
equal   affection,  never  intended    that   a   few 
should    monopolize    the    comforts    which    he 
meant  for  all.     Luther  says,  that  "  there  is  no 
rebellion  like  that  of  the  belly  ;"  and  how  ea- 
-.ily  could  we  persuade  ourselves,  that  poverty 
as  well  as  property  has  its  rights,  and  that  we 
might  employ  force  to  compel  what  kindness 
should    have    spontaneously    granted.      The 
world  has  no  such  security  against  Socialism, 
Communism,  and  such  dangerous  doctrines,  ai. 
our  Holy  Faith.     It  calls  us  to  recognize  in 
the  different  orders  and  lots  of  men,  the  prov- 
idence of  God  ;  it  fills  us  with  aspirations  af- 
ter a  better  world  ;  it  supports  us  by  the  hope 
if  it ;  and  it  teaches  us,  in  whatsoever  state 
we  are,  therewith  to  be    content.     But  the 
class  whose  miseries  we  pity,  and  whose  wrongs 
we  seek  to  remedy,  are  moved  only  by  other 
considerations.    It  would  be  hard  to  convince 


136  SEED-TIME  AND   HARVEST;   OR, 

them  that  they  have  any  earthly  interest  in 
maintaining  the  present  order  of  society. 
Their  place  is  the  mire  and  mud.  They  lie  at 
the  bottom  of  the  wheel.  A  revolution  may 
improve  their  position  :  as  one  said,  they  may 
be  better, — they  cannot  be  worse.  So  argues 
Despair.  And  let  a  storm  arise,  that,  reaching 
the  depths  of  society,  shall  agitate  this  lowest 
class,  and  the  country  will  learn  that  it  was  a 
miserable  economy  which  left  millions  of  uned- 
ucated, irreligious,  and  desperate  men,  to  form 
at  once  the  tools,  and  the  victims  of  revolution. 
Politicians  may  rest  assured,  that  when  this 
rapidly-growing  body  of  ignorance  and  crime 
has  reached  its  full  strength,  they  will  have 
a  giant  to  contend  with.  Events  have  proved 
that  fighting  is  a  game  which  other  parties 
than  soldiers  can  play  at.  Government  by 
bayonets  and  batons  is  as  uncertain  as  it  is 
expensive  ;  and  the  world  is  learning  to  its 
cost  that  the  Bible,  while  the  cheapest,  is  in 
every  way  the  best  instrument  of  Government. 
It  teaches  man  how  to  bear  liis  wrongs  till  he 
find  a  right  way  to  remedy  them.     It  teaches 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      137 

the  slave  to  break  his  chain,  without  breaking 
it  on  the  head  of  his  oppressor  ;  and  that  he 
ceases  to  be  a  slave,  not  to  become  a  despot, 
but  to  be  a  freeman. 

Like  some  who  ceased  their  alarm  at  tlie 
consumption  of  coal,  on  learning  that  the  fields 
of  Newcastle  would  keep  our  engines  going 
and  chimneys  smoking  so  long  as  they  were 
likely  to  live  to  travel,  or  roast  to  eat,  there 
be  base  people,  content  to  sit  still  without  sac- 
rifice or  self-denial,  if  assured  that  the  evils 
we  dread  will  not  happen  in  tlieir  time.  All 
that  they  care  for  is  that  the  ship  swim  so 
long  as  they  are  aboard.  They  are  content  if 
there  be  peace  in  their  day.  But  what,  with 
the  water  steadily  rising,  if  a  storm  should 
rise  ?  It  would  precipitate  the  fate  of  the 
sinking  vessel,  and,  throwing  her  on  her  beam 
ends,  send  her  lurching  to  the  bottom.  A  tree, 
decayed  at  the  roots  and  loosened  in  the  soil, 
may  stand  so  long  as  the  atmosphere  is  calm  ; 
but  let  a  gale  of  wind  spring  up,  and,  with  a 
crash  corresponding  to  its  magnitude,  it  falls 
to  the  ground. 


138  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

We  are  no  timid  alarmists.  I  would  adopt 
the  brave  words  of  the  French  general,  who, 
arriving  on  the  field  where  his  gallant  coun- 
trymen had  sustained  a  defeat,  pulled  out  his^ 
watch,  and,  glancing  at  tlie  sinking  sun,  ex- 
claimed, "  There  is  time  enough  yet  to  fight 
another  battle,  and  win  it !"  With  our  unex- 
ampled means,  with  our  national  energy,  and, 
notwithstanding  all  our  defects,  with  the 
amount  of  true  Christianity  in  this  land,  I  be- 
lieve there  is  yet  time  enough  to  break  up  these 
formidable  masses,  and  arrest  the  progress  of 
ignorance  and  corruption.  The  foundations 
of  society  are  not  irremediably  decayed.  But 
if  the  causes  which  are  now  undermining  the 
social  fabric  are  left  in  active  operation,  this 
empire  shall  sooner  or  later  fall,  like  some  ma- 
jestic and  splendid  iceberg,  whose  foundations, 
hidden  in  the  deep,  have  been  worn  by  the  wa- 
ter, hollowed  by  the  waves,  till  on  some  tem- 
pestuous day  the  glittering  edifice  begins  to 
rock,  and,  toppling  over,  buries,  amid  the  foam- 
ing surge  and  swell  it  raises,  the  unfortunate 
ships  which  had  been  moored  to  its  sides,  the 


PLEAS  FOE  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      139 

unhappy  mariners  who  had  sought  safety  in  its 
shelter. 

To  attempt  to  avert  such  a  fate  is  every 
man's  duty  ;  and,  more  than  he  dreams  of,  is 
within  every  man's  doing.  This  is  no  idle  say- 
ing. Were  we  to  make  a  pilgrimage,  as  soon 
as  to  the  lonely  lieath  where  martyrs  repose, 
we  would  direct  our  steps  to  the  busy  streets 
of  Portsmouth ;  and  would  turn  from  the 
proud  array  of  Old  England's  floating  bul- 
warks to  seek  out  the  humble  shop  where  John 
Pounds  achieved  works  of  mercy,  and  earned 
an  imperishable  fame.  There  is  no  poetry  in 
his  name,  and  none  in  his  profession  ;  but 
there  was  more  than  poetry  in  his  life, — the 
noblest  benevolence.  Within  the  shop  where 
he  cobbled  shoes  he  might  be  seen  surrounded 
by  some  score  or  two  of  ragged  urchins,  whom 
he  was  educating  and  converting  into  valuable 
members  of  society.  Honor  to  the  memory  of 
him,  beneath  whose  leathern  apron  there  beat 
the  kindest  heart, — tlicre  glowed  a  bosom  fired 
with  the  noblest  ambition.  Witlioutfee  or  re- 
ward from  man,  while  he  toiled  for  his  hard- 


140  ^EED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  J   OR,' 

earned  bread  with  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  this 
poor  cobbler  educated  not  less  than  five  hun- 
dred outcasts  before  they  laid  him  in  his  lowly 
grave!  Honor,  we  may  say  again,  to  the 
memory  of  this  illustrious  patriot !  Nor  is 
there  any  sight  we  would  have  travelled  so  far 
to  see  as  that  self-same  man,  when  he  followed 
some  ragged  boy  along  the  quays  of  Ports 
mouth,  keeping  his  kind,  keen  eye  upon  him 
and  tempting  the  young  savage  to  his  school 
with  the  bribe  of  a  smoking  potato.  Princes 
and  peers,  judges  and  divines,  might  have  stood 
uncovered  in  his  presence  ;  and  marble  monu- 
ments might  be  removed  from  the  venerable 
walls  of  Westminster  to  make  room  for  his. 

His  history  proves  what  a  single-handed  but 
right-hearted  man  may  do  ;  what — would  the 
reader  address  himself  in  earnest  to  the  work 
— he  himself  might  do.  Animated  by  his  ex- 
ample, and  encouraged  by  his  success,  we  en- 
treat you  to  turn  an  eye  of  piety  and  of  pity 
on  these  unhappy  children.  These  are  the 
children  of  our  common  Father.  Man,  they 
are  thy  brothers  and  sisters, — bone  of  thy  bone, 


PLEAS   FOR   RA(jr.El)    SCHOOLS.  141 

and  flesh  of  thy  flesh :  their  hard  and  melan- 
choly lot  may  be  thy  crime, — it  cannot  be  their 
own.  Sinner,  they  are  thy  fellows  :  in  them 
see  an  emblem  of  tliy  state  when  thou  wast  an 
outcast,  too,  lying  in  thy  blood,  when  a  God 
of  mercy  passing  by,  looked  on  thee  and  said, 
"  Live."  Christian,  they  were  pitied  by  thy 
dying  Lord :  for  them,  as  well  as  thee,  He 
bled,  and  groaned,  and  breathed  his  last  on 
Calvary  ;  and  of  such  He  said,  "  Suffer  little 
children  to  come  unto  me." 

Parents,  you  who  know  a  father's  and  a 
mother's  heart !  look  on  them ;  and  thank 
God,  who  maketh  one  to  differ  from  another, 
that  their  miserable  lot  is  not  that  of  your 
more  fortunate  offspring.  As  you  smile  on 
them,  and  see  their  bright,  pleasant  faces  beam- 
ing round  your  board  or  cheerful  fire, — as  you 
bless  their  heads,  and  hear  their  liymns,  and 
kiss  them  in  their  warm  couch, — refuse  not  a 
tear,  a  prayer,  a  contribution,  for  many  who 
often  know  a  parent's  curses,  but  never  a  Chris- 
tian parent's  care. 

To  God,  in  whose  hands  are  the  hearts  of 


142  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST. 

all  men,  we  commend  this  cause.  May  He, 
who  out  of  the  mouth  of  babes  and  sucklings 
ordaineth  strength,  give  effect  to  this  appeal, 
and  crown  our  labors  with  success.  Thus  shall 
these  schools  be  instrumental,  not  only  in  sav- 
ing many  now  lost  to  society,  but  in  bringing 
inany  to  Jesus.  In  their  best,  highest,  and 
holiest  sense,  they  shall  realize  the  saying, — 
"  This,  my  son,  was  dead,  and  is  alive  again  ; 

HE  was  lost,  and  IS  FOUND." 


THIRD  PLEA. 

THE  nineteen  til  century,  though  little  more 
than  half  run  out,  will  prove  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  in  the  history  of  tlie  world. 
As  distance  grows,  many  of  what  are  now  con- 
sidered its  great  events  shall,  like  mountains 
afar  off,  fade  on  the  eye,  and  at  length  sink  out 
of  view.  Time  will  fill  up  the  letters  which 
the  sword  has  carved  ;  new  revolutions  will 
throw  down  the  barriers  of  existing  empires  ; 
and,  some  centuries  hence,  the  world  will  re- 
tain no  trace  of  many  who  are  now  playing  the 
chief  parts  on  its  stage.  The  men  who  have 
immortalized  themselves  and  their  times  are 
those  who,  amid  the  din  of  machinery,  or  in 
retreats  remote  from  the  bustle  of  camps,  the 
intrigues  of  court,  and  the  noisy  combats  of 
public  assemblies,  have  studied  the  arts,  not  of 
war,  but  of  peace.  When  the  world  has  lost 
almost  all  of  Wellington  but  his  name,  James 
Watt  shall  live  in  his  inventions.     His  genius 

(143) 


144  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

shall  continue  through  untold  generations  to 
subdue  the  soil,  and  triumph  over  the  sea ;  to 
employ  the  hands  and  fill  the  mouths  of  mill- 
ions. 

Among  many  peculiar  features  of  our  age, 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  is  the  expansive 
and  the  comprehensive  character  of  its  benev- 
olence. Our  grandfathers  or  great  grand- 
fathers, though  good  people,  were  content  to 
live  for  themselves.  Their  religion  was  con- 
templative rather  than  active.  To  live  a  holy 
life,  to  rear  a  virtuous  and  pious  family,  was 
the  height  of  their  ambition.  Their  sympa- 
thies were  confined  to  a  circle  so  narrow  that 
they  remind  one  of  the  story  told  of  an  honest 
countryman,  who,  away  from  home,  attended 
worship  in  the  church  of  the  parish  where  he 
chanced  to  be.  The  preacher  was  a  great  ora- 
tor. The  audience  were  moved  to  tears  ;  not 
so  the  rustic.  He  sat  hard  and  stolid  as  the 
bench  beneath  him  ;  and  replied,  when  asked 
how  he  could  possibly  sit  unmoved  by  such  a 
flood  of  pathos,  "  Oh,  you  see  I  don't  belong  to 
the  parish  I" 


PLEAS   FOR    T,.U1(1E1)   SCHOOLS.  14f 

In  olden  time^^,  what  did  not  belong  to  the 
parish,  the  neighborliood,  or  the  family,  ex- 
cited little  intere^^t.  With  exceptions  hardly 
wortli  mentioning,  the  chnrches  of  Christ  did 
nothing  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen,  ei- 
ther abroad  or  at  home.  Though  there  are 
now  five  vessels  belonging  to  missionary  socie- 
ties sailing  about  their  work  in  the  Pacific 
Ocean  alone,  formerly  no  ships  left  London, 
Liverpool,  Glasgow,  or  any  other  port,  with 
missionaries  among  their  passengers,  and  Bi- 
bles part  of  their  cargo.  Foreign,  Home, 
City,  Medical  Missions;  Sabbath,  Evening, 
Apprentice,  Factory,  and  Ragged  Schools  ; 
Bible,  Tract,  Pastoral  Aid,  and  Total  Absti- 
nence Societies  ;— these,  and  many  other  such 
schemes,  are  the  growth  and  glory  of  our  own 
age.  Thus,  while  science  and  the  arts  have 
made  unparalleled  progress  since  heads  now 
grey  were  black,  and  grown  men  were  boys, 
the  church  has  not  lagged  beliind.  Pressing 
forward  on  her  higher  career,  she  lias  kept 
abreast  of  them  in  the  race. 

Another  remarkable  feature  of  our  era,  is 


146  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST;    OR 

the    acknowledgment    and    practical  applica,- 
tion  of  the  power  of  union  ;  of  cooperatioM,  a? 
better  than  individual  action.      Separate  the 
atoms  that  form  a  hammer,  and  in  that  state  of 
minute  division  they  would  fall  on  a  stone  with 
no  more  effect  than  snow-flakes.     Weld  them 
into  one  solid  mass,  and,  swung  round  by  the 
quarryman's  brawny  arm,  they  descend  on  the 
rock  like  a  thunderbolt.      Stand  by  the  falls 
of  Niagara,  and  as  the  waters,  gathered  from 
a  hundred  lakes,  are  rolling  with  the  voice  of 
a  hundred  thunders  over  the  rocky  precipice, 
fancy  them  divided  into  their  individual  atoms ! 
They   miglit    gem  with    sparkling    dew-drops 
vast  tracts  of  field  or  forest ;  in  clouds  of  gold, 
and  amber,  and  purple,  they  might  hang  cur 
tains  round  the  gates  of  day  ;  but  where  were 
the  onward,  overwhelming  power  of  the  majes- 
tic flood  ?      Gone  ;  and  gone  the  vaunt  with 
which  a  New  Englander  met  the  boast  of  a 
Neapolitan,   during   a   brilliant    eruption   of 
Vesuvius.     The  poor  Italian  had  the  glory  of 
Vesuvius,  if  he  had  nothing  else,  to  boast  of 
in  his  priest-ridden  country.      Directing  the 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     147 

attention  of  his  companion  to  the  mountain,  as 
it  shot  up  showers  of  fiery  stones,  and  licked 
the  sky  with  long  tongues  of  flame,  and  poured 
streams  of  glowing  lava  down  its  riven  sides, 
lie  exclaimed,  "  You  have  nothing  like  that  in 
your  country!"  "No,"  said  the  other,  with 
nasal  twang,  but  thrust  quick  and  sharp  as 
rapier's,  "  Yet,  I  guess  we  have  a  bit  of  water 
that  would  put  it  out  in  two  minutes."  Now, 
as  with  the  combined  power  of  matter,  so  is  it 
with  the  combined  power  of  men.  They  do  in 
masses  what  they  would  not  attempt,  or,  at- 
tempting, could  not  achieve  as  individual  units. 
Bravely  and  gallantly  as  our  soldiers  fought 
at  Waterloo,  I  doubt  if  there  were  twenty  men 
on  that  field  who  would  have  stood  up  singl} 
ff^r  seven  long  hours  to  be  shot  at  like  targets  . 
yet,  massed  in  solid  square  and  column,  how 
they  stood !  from  morning  to  sundown,  facing 
the  foe,  and  budging  not  a  foot,  till  night 
crowned  their  efibrts  with  victory.  The  wise 
man  says,  "  two  are  better  than  one  ;  "  and  our 
Lord  Limself  illustrated  the  advantages  of  union 
when  he  sent  forth  his  disciples  two  by  two. 


148  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

From  the  expansive  benevolence,  and  com- 
bined action,  which  characterize  the  Christian- 
ity of  our  own  age,  have  sprmig  up,  among 
other  holy  enterprises,  those  Ragged  Schools 
which  I  advocated  years  ago.  The  most  need- 
ed, they  have  been  the  most  successful  of  those 
philanthropic  schemes  which  form  at  once  a 
burden  to  the  rich  and  a  blessing  to  the  poor. 
I  remember  the  day  when  they  were  but  a  beau- 
tiful theory  ;  in  the  eyes  of  many  but  the  rain- 
bow-colored dream  of  benevolent  enthusiasts. 
In  those  days  it  was  necessary  to  lay  bare  the 
bleeding  wounds  of  humanity  ;  to  move  the  pub- 
lic by  tales  of  misery,  and  raise,  if  we  could,  a 
flood  of  feeling  to  float  us  over  the  pecuniary  dif- 
ficulties that  barred  our  way.  Many  were  cal- 
lous. People  had  got  accustomed  to  the  evils 
we  sought  to  cure,  as  much  as  the  woman  to 
the  bad  water  she  had  used  from  childhood  ; 
and  who,  on  being  asked  what  she  tJiought  of 
the  supply  which  municipal  reformers  had 
brought  to  the  town,  declared  it  not  worth 
drinking,  —  for  "  it  had  neither  taste  nor 
smell ! "    Some,  like  the  old  masters  of  paint- 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     149 

ing,  seemed  to  consider  rags  rather  picturesque 
than  otherwise  :  and  in  the  great  mass  of  men 
and  women  familiarity  with  the  evil  had  bred 
indifference,  if  not  contempt.  Others  there 
were  who  ridiculed  the  idea  of  reforming  so- 
ciety, ^o  far  as  in  any  perceptible  degree  to 
lessen  the  amount  of  crime.  They  deemed  us 
fanatics,  if  not  fools  ;  and,  buttoning  up  their 
pockets,  settled  the  question  with  this  sage 
aphorism,  as  long  as  there  are  pockets  to  pick 
there  will  be  pickpockets.  They  did  not  seem 
to  see  that  their  mode  of  treating  the  subject 
might  be  applied  to  other  things  besides  Rag- 
ged Schools.  It  might  be  said,  Why  attempt 
to  prevent  murder  ?  as  long  as  there  are  throats 
to  cut  there  will  be  cut-throats.  Away  with 
light-houses!  as  long  as  there  are  ships  there 
will  be  shipwrecks.  Away  with  drugs  and 
doctors!  as  long  as  there  are  diseases  there 
will  be  deaths.  Away  with  our  national  de- 
fences !  as  long  as  the  French  remember  Wa 
terloo  there  will  be  danger  of  an  invasion. 

A  more  serious  ol)jection  to  Ragged  Schools 
seemed  to  lie  in  the  averment,  that  bv  feeding 
13* 


150  SEED-TIME    AXD    HARVEST;    OR, 

and  educating  the  cliildren  of  the  abandoned, 
we  were  bestowing  a  premium  on  crime.  It 
was  based  on  the  same  mistake  as  the  fault 
some  find  with  the  comfortable  temperature, 
the  cleanliness,  and  the  good  diet  of  our  pris- 
ons. These,  it  is  said,  act  as  inducements  to 
crime  ;  they  tempt  honest  men  to  become 
rogues,  since  rogues  find  themselves  better  ofi" 
in  jail  than  honest,  hard-working  men  at  home. 
This  is  a  mere  fallacy.  I  know  how  rogues 
weary  for  the  end  of  their  sentence, — counting 
the  months,  and  days,  and  hours  ;  aye,  and 
the  minutes.  Put  it  to  the  proof ;  and  it  will  be 
found  that  the  most  destitute  wretch  thinks  clean 
walls,  and  warmth,  and  substantial  diet  a  poor 
set-off  against  wild  joys,  and  the  sweets  of  lib- 
erty. Withdraw  the  warders  ;  throw  open 
the  prison  gates ;  and  how  many  of  the  ten- 
ants, for  love  of  the  comfortable  lodgings,  will 
remain  ?  Not  one.  They  would  swarm  out 
like  bees  in  summer  day  from  the  door  of  a 
hive.  Not  one  of  them  but  holds  it  better,  in 
the  words  of  the  old  moss-trooper,  "  to  Jwar  the 
loverocJc  sing  than  the  mouse  cheeps     And  he 


PLEAS   FOR   UMXED   SCHOOLS.  151 

Who  faucies  it  would  be  otherwise,  is  not  more 
ianoraiitof  hu.nan  nature  than  such  as  fear 
that  decent  parents  will  give  themselves  up  to 
dissipation,  because  they  know  that  their  chil- 
dren will  find  a  refuge  within  the  walls  ot  a 
Ragged  School.     Children  are  indeed  pledges 
for  good  conduct,  hostages  which  men   give 
the  State  ;  and,  like  a  vessel  which  owes  her 
safety  to  her  moorings,  many  parents  owe  then- 
goodness,  and   some  have   owed    even    then- 
greatness,  to  the  affections  that  bind  them  to 
their  offspring.     In  humbler  spheres  than  his 
many  have  felt  the  power  which  introduced 
Lord  Erskine  to  fortune.     When  a  briefless 
barrister,  with  a  wife  and  children  to  support, 
he  got  engaged  in  a  great  cause  ;  he  plead  it 
before  the  assembled  rank,  and  power,  and 
genius  of  England  ;  and  won  it.     Asked  how 
he  unaccustomed  to  public  speaking,  was  able 
to  speak  so  fluently,  boldly,  and  brilliantly  be- 
fore   such    an   audience,  he  replied   that  ho 
thought,  as  he  rose  to   his  feet,  that  he  felt 
his  children  pulling   at  his  gown,  and   cry- 
ing, "  Father,  father,  now  is  the  time  to  make 


152 


our  bread."  I  admit  this  influence,  and  indeed 
recognize  in  it  the  beneficent  arrangement  of 
Providence  ;  yet  what  sober,  industrious,  afi'ec- 
tionate  father  ever  became  an  idle,  drunken 
profligate,  from  expecting  his  children  to  find 
parents  in  the  patrons  of  a  Ragged  School. 
I  never  met  with  or  heard  of  such  a  case. 
Fallen  as  man  is,  he  is  not  sunk  so  low  as  that. 
By  other  paths,  and  through  other  doors,  men 
descend  the  easy  steps  to  perdition.  Irrelig- 
ion,  and  ignorance,  beer  and  dram-shops,  not 
Ragged  Schools,  make  drunken  parents  and 
destitute  children.  These  schools  have  no 
more  tendency  to  produce  ragged  children, 
tlian  paper-mills  the  rags  which  they  manufac- 
ture. Converting  the  ofi'spring  of  the  thief 
and  drunkard  into  valuable  members  of  society, 
they  may  be  justly  likened  to  those  beautiful 
macliines,  which  out  of  foulest  rags  bring 
sheets  of  a  snow-white  fabric,  to  receive  from 
pen  or  types  the  tenderest  sentiments  or  the 
noblest  truths,  and  carry  them  to  the  ends  of 
the  world. 

Commenced     fifteen    years     ago,    Ragged 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     153 

Schools  have  now  liad  a  full  trial ;  and  tlieir 
benefits,  to  use  the  words  of  Dr.  Chalmers, 
are  matter  not  experiment,  but  of  experience. 
The  tree,  saith  the  Lord,  is  known  by  its  fruit ; 
and  by  that  unerring  test  we  are  willing,  and 
indeed  anxious  that  they  should  be  tried.  For 
this  purpose,  I  might  crowd  these  pages  with 
statistics  drawn  from  the  provincial  towns,  as 
well  as  from  the  largest  cities  of  the  kingdom  ; 
and  all  demonstrating  their  entire  success. 
These  institutions  are  everywhere  :  and  the 
best  proof  of  their  value  lies,  perhaps,  in  the 
fact  that  no  Ragged  School,  once  opened,  has 
ever  been  shut  up  ;  while  other  schemes,  from 
French  republics  downward,  have  burst  like 
soap  bubbles. 

The  poor  cobbler,  John  Pounds  of  Ports- 
mouth, the  great  paper-maker,  the  late  Mr. 
Cowan  of  Edinburgh,  and  other  less  known 
but  not  less  benevolent  individuals,  gathering 
together  some  poor  children,  and  bridging  the 
gulf  between  ignorance  and  education  with  a 
loaf  of  bread,  initiated  our  system  many  years 
ago.     But  to  Mr.  Watson,  sheriff  of  Aberdeen, 


154  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

belongs  the  honor  of  raising  the  Ragged  School 
to  the  status  of  a  public  institution.  The 
scheme,  as  it  came  from  his  hand,  was  but  "  an 
handful  of  corn  in  the  earth  upon  the  top  of 
the  mountains."  Yet,  more  fortunate  than 
many  philanthropists,  he  has  lived  to  see  it 
shake,  and  scatter,  and  spread  itself,  till  now 
harvests  of  saved  ones  are  gathered  year  by 
year  from  every  corner  of  the  land.  Its  birth, 
like  that  of  Him  on  whose  bosom  it  seeks  to 
lay  these  children,  was  obscure.  It  had  no 
solemn  or  brilliant  inauguration  ;  yet  that 
which  began  some  fifteen  years  ago  in  a  loft  in 
a  mean  street  in  Aberdeen,  has  now  grown 
into  a  national  institution,  at  whose  meetings 
nobles  deem  it  an  honor  to  preside  ;  to  whicl 
the  churches  lend  their  countenance,  and  the 
State  its  support. 

To  attempt  to  collect  all  the  facts  from  the 
wide  field  occupied  by  Ragged  Schools,  would 
lay  this  plea  open  to  the  critique  pronounced 
on  an  English  Dictionary,  which  a  wag  had 
handed  to  a  witling  in  search  of  something  to 
while  away  an  hour.     "  A  very  good  book,"  he 


PLEAS    FOR    R A (1(5 ED    SCHOOLS.  155 

Baid,  after  haviug  travelled  over  pages  on 
"and,"  "apple,"  "at;"  and  "bee,"  "bone," 
"  but ;"  "  calf,"  "  cat,"  and  "  cow  ;"  "  but  it  saya 
amazing  little  on  each  subject."  Such  were 
this  plea,  should  I  attempt  a  history  of  all  the 
Ragged  Schools  that  lie  between  St.  George's 
Channel  and  Pentland  Firth.  Besides,  it 
would  present  little  else  *  than  tables  of  dry 
statistics.  This  I  shall  avoid  :  because,  though 
jj:ood  in  measure,  and,  like  those  solid  parts  of 
the  frame  which  support  the  flesh,  very  neces- 
sary to  sustain  an  argument,  statistics,  like  a 
dish  of  bones,  are  dry  eating  ;  hard  to  chew, 
difiicult  of  digestion. 

The  most  interesting  and  instructive  way  of 
dealing  with  the  matter,  will  be  to  choose  a 
sample  of  the  stock.  For  that  purpose,  I  take 
the  Original  Ragged  School  of  Edinburgh.  I 
select  that,  not  because  it  is  better  than  others, 
but  because  it  is  the  school  at  whose  birth  I 
presided,  and  with  whose  history,  growth,  and 
progress,  I  am  best  acquainted.  Now,  taking 
that  as  a  fair  specimen  of  Ragged  Schools,  I 
state, — 


156  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST  ;   OR, 

I.  That  these  Schools  have  put  down  the 
great  evil  of  juvenile  mendicancy. 

Twelve  years  ago,  before  our  Schools  were 
opened,  the  streets  of  Edinburgh  swarmed  with 
boys  and  girls  whose  trade  was  begging,  and 
whose  end  was  the  jail.  They  rose  every  morn- 
ing from  the  lower  districts,  like  a  cloud  of 
mosquitoes  from  a  marsh,  to  disperse  them- 
selves over  the  city  and  its  suburbs.  Defiant 
of  the  police,  they  pursued  their  calling  with 
a  perseverance  that  amounted  to  persecution. 
People  were  glad  to  give  money  to  get  rid  of 
them.  These  beggars,  when  force  failed,  had 
recourse  to  fraud  ;  the  motto  of  old  and  young 
being  Arte  vel  Marte.  For  instance,  a  humane 
friend  of  mine,  and  a  clever  woman  besides, 
had  often  assisted  a  widow  and  her  child. 
Well,  the  girl  one  day  presented  herself  with 
eyes  streaming  in  tears,  and  her  little  heart 
like  to  break  with  sobs — her  mother  was  dead. 
Ever  ready  to  weep  with  them  that  weep,  my 
friend  gave  linen  for  a  shroud,  and  money  for 
a  coffin.  By  and  by,  such  a  genial  day  as 
brings    out    the   first   flowers   and    songs   of 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     157 

spring,  tempted  her,  for  she  was  delicate,  out 
of  doors.  Something  in  the  street  recalled 
to  her  memory  the  poor  orphan  and  its  dead 
mother.  At  that  moment  slie  turned  a  corner, 
and  suddenly  found  herself  face  to  face  with 
the  corpse.  It  is  impossible  to  fancy  her  as- 
tonishment. Had  she  met  this  awful  object  in 
the  gloaming,  or  under  the  pale  moonlight,  she 
might  have  dropped  down,  struck  with  fear  ; 
but  to  meet  the  dead  walking  about  in  broad 
day,  and  in  busy  streets,  was  contrary  to  all 
precedent.  She  was  speechless ;  and  before 
she  had  time  to  solve  the  mystery,  the  oppor- 
tunity vanished, — and  the  apparition  also  ;  for 
that,  equally  surprised,  took  to  its  heels,  and 
made  off  apace  in  the  form  of  a  sturdy  beggar. 
The  very  children  of  this  caste  were  great 
actors  and  remarkably  ingenious.  I  one  day 
witnessed  an  instance  of  this  in  a  boy,  who, 
when  typhus  fever  was  raging  in  town,  per- 
formed that  difiScult  operation  vulgarly  called 
skinninq  a  flint.  The  patient  was  a  sour,  mea- 
gre, vinegar-looking  old  lady  ;  the  operator 
a  little  fellow,  without  shoe  on  his  foot,  cap 
14 


158  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

on  his  head,  or  shirt  on  his  back  ;  but  with 
a  pair  of  bright  eyes  gleaming  out  of  hollow 
sockets.  Having  observed  him  fix  his  regards 
on  the  old  woman,  I  watched  the  proceedings. 
He  approached  her  with  a  most  pitiful  look 
and  whine.  He  might  as  well  have  spoken  to 
a  stone.  To  use  the  slang  of  his  class,  it  was 
no  go.  Her  response  was  a  snarl  and  poke  of 
her  umbrella.  Seeing  at  a  glance  how  the 
land  lay,  he  put  up  his  helm,  and  went  off  on 
another  tack.  Addressing  himself  to  her  sel- 
fishness, in  an  instant  he  rolled  up  the  sleeve 
of  a  tattered  jacket,  and  sticking  his  yellow, 
skinny  arm  in  her  face,  he  edged  close  up  to 
the  old  body,  saying,  "  Out  o'  the  Infirmary, 
ma'am,  with  typhus."  It  was  a  7'use  got  up  foi 
the  occasion  ;  but  the  acting  was  perfect — th( 
effect  sudden,  electric.  The  poor  creature 
started  as  if  she  had  received  a  shock.  At  one 
dive  her  hand  was  deep  in  her  pocket.  Seiz- 
ing the  first  coin,  she  dropped  it  into  liis  palm, 
and  hobbled  away  ;  glad  to  get  the  little  rogue 
ft*om  between  the  wind  and  her  nobility. 
We  had  no  Ragged  School  then  ;  and  T  did 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     159 

not  commit  tliis  urchin  to  the  police.  Why 
should  I  ?  I  knew  that  lie  would  be  in  their 
hands  too  soon, — caged  like  a  captive  bird  ; 
and  I  had  not  the  heart  to  shut  up  that  free 
denizen  of  the  streets  within  four  stone  walls, 
and  rob  him  of  his  liberty,  wild  though  it  was. 
So  long  as  society  stood  by,  careless  what  be- 
came of  him,  nor  stretching  out  a  hand  to  keep 
his  head  above  water,  she,  the  greater  sinner 
of  the  two,  had  no  right  to  assume  virtuous 
airs. 

Besides,  what  good  could  come  of  locking 
him  up  in  a  prison  ?  Did  my  reader  ever  visit 
a  jail  ?  Did  you  ever  look  in  at  the  eyelet  of 
a  cell-door,  and  within  those  naked  walls  see 
a  little  boy  —  immured  in  that  living  coffin? 
He  should  be  playing  with  laughing  mates  on 
the  village  green,  or  chasing  the  butterfly  over 
llowery  mead,  or  nutting  in  the  bosky  glen,  or 
fishing  some  crystal  stream,  or  conning  his 
lesson  amid  the  hum  of  the  busy  school,  or  sit- 
ting with  brothers  and  sisters  in  the  ruddy 
gleam  of  the  fireside  at  home ;  but  there  he 
pines  ;   lonely  ;   weary  ;    spirit   crushed  ;   the 


160 


lustre  quenched  in  his  eye  ;  rosy  health  faded 
from  his  cheek  ;  and  all  vigor  gone  out  of  his, 
unknit  frame.  I  have  seen  that ;  and  if  you 
could  look  on  that  without  a  touch  of  pity,  and 
without  hating  prisons  as  schools  for  child- 
hood, I  would  throw  down  my  pen  in  despair. 
What  effect  have  prisons  had  in  deterring 
from  crime,  or  in  reforming  criminals  ?  Weigh- 
ed in  the  balance,  they  have  been  found  wanting. 
How  could  it  be  otherwise  ?  J  ust  as  the 
caterpillar  leaves  its  chrysalis  case  a  perfect 
insect,  the  young  delinquent  emerges  from  his 
cell  a  fully  developed  criminal.  Besides  bear- 
ing the  brand  of  a  prison,  he  is  lost.  After 
that,  as  one  poor  fellow  said  to  me,  "We  have 
not  a  chance,  sir."  What  tradesman  will  take 
them  into  his  shop,  or  what  mistress  into  her 
kitchen  ?  They  are  shut  out  from  all  honest 
employment.  They  will  not  starve  ;  they  must 
steal.  Society,  having  first  neglected,  now 
shakes  off  the  drowning  wretches :  they  sink, 
and  no  wonder !  Self-respect — next  to  the  fear 
of  God,  man's  best  bower  anchor — gone,  they 
drift  on,  a  wreck  without  mast  or  helm,  to 


PLEAS   FOR   RAOrxED    SCHOOLS.  1()1 

certain  ruin.  Don't  blame  them  for  throwing 
themselves  into  the  arms  of  their  ohl  associates  ; 
none  others  are  open  to  receive  them.  They 
have  neither  choice  nor  chance  in  this  Chris- 
tian land. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  no  means  were 
tried  before  the  institution  of  Ragged  Schools 
to  suppress  street  begging.  The  most  strenuoiLS 
and  persevering  efforts  were  made.  The  police 
did  their  utmost,  but  these  urchins  were  as  ill 
to  catch  and  to  hold  as  eels.  The  Magistrates, 
pregnant  with  great  things,  issued  proclama- 
tions against  begging  or  giving  charity  in  the 
streets.  What  cared  these  city  Arabs  for  pro- 
clamations  ?  not  a  straw.  They  could  not  read 
them.  They  went  for  nothing  with  others  as 
well  as  with  them.  For,  so  long  as  hunger 
stretched  ont  its  skinny  hands  for  bread,  so 
long  as  poverty  shivering  in  squalid  rags 
appealed  to  human  pity,  and  childhood's  sad 
face,  looking  as  if  it  had  never  been  lighted 
with  a  smile,  looked  up  implorkigly  into  ours, 
kind  hearts  were  not  to  be  drilled  into  with- 
holding  charity.      If,  listening  to  what  men 


162  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST;   OR, 

call  prudence,  we  ever  refused  our  pittance, 
how  did  their  ghastly  faces  seem  to  stare  on  us 
as  we  sat  at  our  comfortable  table — marring 
its  enjoyment?  They  haunted  busy  fancy  in 
the  darkness  of  night  ;  we  saw  the  creature  re- 
turning wet,  and  weary,  and  hungry,  to  be 
beaten  by  a  brutal  father  or  drunken  mother  ; 
or  cowering  cold  and  sleepless,  like  a  houseless 
dog,  in  open  stair  or  beneath  some  shed  or 
archway. 

Let  me  illustrate  what,  ere  our  schools  were 
opened,  was  the  condition  of  many  among 
these  children,  by  a  case  which  occurred  last 
year.  Returning  in  one  of  the  fiercest  storms 
I  have  faced,  from  the  opposite  end  of  the 
town,  it  was  with  difficulty  I  made  good  my 
way  round  the  base  of  the  crags  on  the  south 
side  of  the  Castle  Rock.  Entering  our  pictur- 
esque High  Street,  where  I  kept  the  "  cantle  o' 
the  causey  "  to  avoid  smashing  chimney-cans, 
and  passing  homeward  along  some  of  our 
busiest  thoroughfares,  I  found  them  all  but 
cleared,  as  by  rounds  of  grape  shot.  Though 
a  dav  on  which  a  man  would  not  have  sent  out 


PLEAS  FOR  HAGGEl)  SCHOOLS.     16^ 

a  dog,  I  saw  a  child  seven  years  old  in  one  of 
the  streets.     Poor  wretch !   he  stood   in   the 
flooded  gutter,  his  rags  glazed  with  the  rain, 
and  the  storm  pelting  on  his  l)are  h-ead  ;  it  was 
pitiful  to  see  him  emaciated  and  shivering,  and 
hear  his  attempts  to  sing.     Of  course,  I  was 
stirred  with   indignation   against  the  brutal 
parent  who  could  turn  out  an  infant  in  such 
weather  ;   and   use  its  misery  to  plunder  the 
humane  of  money— to  be  spent,  no  doubt,  m 
damning  drink.     On  giving  a  little  charity, 
and  bidding  the  creature  go  home  immediately, 
I  heard  one  sav,  "  That's  right,  sir,  send  him  to 
Dr.   Guthrie's  Ragged  School."     On   turning 
round,  I  found  the  speaker,  buttoned  close  up 
to   the   throat,   with   a   cap   pulled   over  his 
brows  ;   he  had   the  appearance  of  a  decent, 
sober,  well-conditioned   mechanic.     A  fellow- 
feeling  makes  us  wondrous  kind  :  and,  pleased 
with  his  humanity,  I  could  not  but  introduce 
myself.     How  luminous,  though  begrimed  with 
smoke,  his  face  became!  He  thrust  out  a  paw, 
black  as  the  back  of  his  forge,  to  shake  hands. 
I  accepted  the  compliment  as  from  a  duchess. 


164  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST;   OB, 

All  honor  to  the  moral  worth  and  honest 
kindliness  that  glowed  in  the  man's  look,  and 
were  felt  in  a  grip  like  a  squeeze  of  his  own 
vice.  That,  by-the-by,  set  down  here  to  the 
credit  of  humble  life.  Resolved  to  be  at  the 
bottom  of  the  case,  I  put  myself  in  communica- 
tion with  the  police,  and  learned  this  child's 
history.  His  father  had  become  a  drunkard  ; 
afterwards  a  thief;  and  was  at  that  time 
undergoing  a  sentence  of  banishment.  His 
mother,  perhaps  first  broken-hearted,  was  a 
dissipated  woman.  Beside  this,  and  another 
boy  still  younger,  she  had  a  daughter  twelve 
years  of  age — -just  ripening  for  ruin.  Heedless 
of  that,  their  mother  hounded  them  out  in  all 
weathers,  and  at  all  hours  of  the  night  as  well 
as  day.  She  would  have  drink,  though  she 
were  damned  herself  and  damned  them  too. 

Save  that  case,  I  have  not  seen  one  of  the 
kind  in  our  streets  for  years.  But  before  the 
Ragged  Schools  were  opened  our  city  swarmed 
with  many  hundreds  in  a  condition  as  helpless 
and  as  hopeless.  Now  the  juvenile  beggars 
are  all  gone.     The  race  is  extinct.     What  has 


PLEAS    FOR   RACGEl)    SCHOOLS.  165 

become  of  them  ?    They  are  not  mouldering 
in  the  grave,  the  last  refuge  of  wretchedness  ; 
nor  are  they  pining  in  prison  cells,  turning  the 
weary  crank,  and  cursing  those  who  have  dealt 
them  out  nothing  but  neglect  and  punishment. 
They  are  off  the  streets,  and  in  our  schools. 
Once  no  care  was  taken  of  them,  and  no  pro- 
vision made  for  them  ;    therefore    a  humane 
public,  supplying  them  with  money,  fostered  a 
system  much  more  ruinous  to  those  that  got, 
than  costly  to  those  that  gave.     Their  voca- 
tion is  gone.     If  any  now  solicit  charity,  the 
answer  is  not  money,  or  a  rough  repulse,  or 
a   curse,  but—"  Go   to   the   Ragged  School." 
There  is  no  excuse  left  either  for  begging  or 
giving.     And  the  consequence  is,  that  we  have 
done  what  neither  police  nor  magistrate  could 
do.    We  have  succeeded  in  thoroughly  putting 
a  stop  to   juvenile  mendicancy.     The  magis- 
trate, now  in  circumstances  to  pass  on  these 
anfortunates    the   happy    sentence    of    daily 
bread,  kind  training,  and  a  Christian  educa- 
tion, sits  with  comfort  on  the  bench— dispens- 
ing not  law  only,  but  justice.     The  wretched 


160  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

are  happy  ;  the  lost  are  saved.  Training  up 
for  useful  occupations,  they  are  on  the  way  to 
hocome  respectable  men  and  women.  Their 
little  feet,  turned  from  the  prison  door,  are 
treading  the  pathway  to  lieaven.  A  loving 
Saviour  has  his  wish,  "  Suffer  little  children  to 
come  unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not,  for  of  such 
is  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  And  in  our 
school,  where  they  are  all  busy  as  bees,  sharp 
as  needles,  bright  as  the  morning,  happy  as 
the  day  is  long,  I  never  hear  them  sweetly 
singing  their  little  hymns,  but  I  seem  to  listen 
to  the  voice  of  angels  and  the  song  of  Bethle- 
hem, "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on 
earth  peace,  good-will  toward  men." 

II.  By  means  of  Ragged  Schools  the  num- 
l)er  of  juvenile  criminals  in  our  jails  has  been 
greatly  reduced. 

•'  The  one  half  of  mankind  does  not  know 
how  the  other  half  live,"  is  a  remark  that  ap- 
plies with  special  truth  to  our  criminal  popula- 
tion. Every  newspaper,  indeed,  has  details 
of  crime  j  but  some  read  only  the  list  of  births, 
younger  people  only  the  list  of  marriages,  and 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     li)7 

hangers-on  for  patronage,  posts,  and  livings, 
only  the  list  of  deaths  ;  politicians  con  lead- 
ing articles,  and  merchants  study  prices  cur- 
rent, Sound  IntelUgence,  shipping  lists,  the 
state  of  stocks — whether  they  are  up  or  down. 
Though  a  few  dip  into  the  police  reports,  and 
a  scandalous  trial  is  perused  by  many  with 
avidity,  and  such  monstrous  cases  as  Palmer's 
in  England  and  Miss  Smith's  in  Scotland  draw 
all  eyes  for  a  while,  and  people  have  a  vague 
floating  notion  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of 
wickedness  in  the  country,  yet  the  amount  of 
crime  and  the  number  of  criminals  are  subjects 
of  which  almost  all  novel,  and  most  news 
readers  are  profoundly  ignorant. 

It  is  not  possible  to  give  the  exact  numbers 
of  those  that  infest  society,  and  live  by  plun- 
der ;  whose  existence  is  a  curse  to  us,  and  also 
to  themselves.  But  we  know  the  number  of  com- 
mitments ;  and  taking  the  average  from  1841 
to  1850.  for  instance,  the  yearly  number  of 
convictions  in  England,  both  summary  and  at 
sessions  and  assizes,  stands  thus  : — 


]  68  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;   OR, 

Convicted  summarily,  males, 56.055 

Do.      at  sessions  and  assizes,  females,  17,201 

73,256 

Males, 22,439 

Females, 5,299 

27,738 

100,994 
Add  to  these  convictions  in  Scotland,         3,994 

104,988 

That  these  numbers  pretty  fairly  represent 
the  state  of  crime,  is  evident  from  their  cor- 
respondence with  those  given  by  Captain  Wil- 
liams in  the  following*  table,  as  the  average  of 
eight  years  preceding  1850  : — 

Convicted  summarily, 73,582 

Do.     at  sessions  and  assizes,    28,101 

101,683 

According  to  other  calculations,  our  crim- 
inal population  numbers  not  less  than  150,000. 
What  a  formidable  evil !  Here  is  a  host  of 
criniiuals,  equal  in  number  to  the  British  army 
proper  ;  and,  strange  to  say,  many  who  com- 
pkiin  loudly  of  the  expense  of  a  standing  army 
of  soldiers  have  not  a  word  to  say  against  this 
standing  army  of  thieves.     Adding  two  per- 


PLEAS   FOR    RAGGED    SCHOC>LS.  169 

Bons,  as  on  an  average,  dependent  upon  each 
of  these  criminals,  we  have  300,000  of  the 
worst  characters,  maintained,  or,  after  a  costly 
fashion  maintaining  themselves,  at  the  public 
expense. 

Thieving  is  a  regular  business ;  a  trade 
which  some  conduct  with  the  regularity  of  a 
bank  or  of  a  mercantile  establishment.  In 
illustration  of  this,  let  me  tell  what  was  told 
to  me  by  one  of  the  heads  of  a  large  publish- 
ing and  bookselling  house  in  London.  Their 
premises  consist  of  a  shop  facing  the  street ; 
behind  that  a  spacious  room  filled  with  valua- 
ble books  ;  and  beyond  that  again  a  reading- 
room,  supplied  with  newspapers  and  magazines. 
From  the  shelves  of  the  middle  room,  they  had 
from  time  to  time  missed  many  volumes.  Un- 
able to  detect  the  depredator,  their  suspicions 
began  reluctantly  to  rest  on  some  of  the  young 
men  in  their  employment.  My  friend,  howev- 
er, as  he  was  one  day  ruminating  on  the  mat- 
ter, recollected  the  visits  of  a  person  who 
came  frequently,  and  always  passed  on  to  the 
inner  rooms ;  but  never  bought  anything. 
15 


170  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST,    OR, 

This  looked  suspicious.  Attired  in  black, 
wearing  a  white  neckcloth,  and  presenting  a 
venerable  appearance,  he  looked  not  unlike  a 
dignitary,  at  the  very  least,  a  dean  of  the 
church.  Could  he  be  the  rogue  ?  My  friend 
dismissed  the  unworthy  thought.  However,  it 
recurred,  and  fixed  itself  in  his  mind.  He  re- 
solved to  watch.  So  next  day  when  the  old 
gentleman  entered,  and  making,  as  usual,  some 
remark  on  the  weather,  glided  into  the  inner 
room,  the  publisher  stationed  himself  by  a  small 
pane  of  glass  which,  from  an  outer  passage, 
commanded  a  view  of  the  interior.  The  vis- 
itor, looking  very  innocent,  appears  to  be 
reading  the  titles  of  the  books  ;  but  the  mys- 
tery is  soon  solved.  The  poor  wretch,  think- 
ing as  little  of  the  eye  that  watched  him  as 
sinners  do  of  the  eye  of  God,  after  looking 
round  to  see  that  the  coast  is  clear,  pulls  a  vol- 
ume from  the  shelf  to  drop  it  into  a  capacious 
pocket ;  the  process  is  repeated  and  repeated, 
till  the  pockets  are  full.  And  now,  when  the 
craft  is  loaded  and  about  to  sail,  my  informant 
comes  forth.     He  arrests  him.     The  thief  pro- 


PLEAS  FOR    RAGCrED   SCHOOLS.  lU 

tests,  but  in  vain.     He  is  committed  to  a  po- 
lice-officer  ;  bis  address  is  taken,  and  in  bis 
house— a  good  one— among  a  great  deal  of 
stolen  property,  tbey  find  a  regularly  kept  day- 
book.     Here  tbey  see  tbe  books  be  bas  pur- 
loined all  duly  entered.     Eacb  day  bas  a  page 
or  more  for  its  own  transactions  ;  on  sucb  a 
day,  for  example,  "Robinson  Crusoe,"  "  Drelin- 
court  on  Deatb,"  "Tbe  Newgate  Calendar," 
"  Law's  Serious  Call,"  "  Gulliver's  Travels," 
"  Tbe  Pilgrim's  Progress  •/'  in  one  column  tbe 
ordinary  selling-price  appears,  in  anotber  tbe 
price  be  got ;  it  is,  in  fact,  as  regular  a  jour- 
nal as  Rotbschild's,  or  any  in  tbe  Bank   of 

England. 

I  know  not  wbetber  tbis  person  bad  received 

a  professional  education  ;  but,  as  tbere  are 
medical  scbools  for  doctors,  and  commercial 
academies  for  mercbants,  tbieving  is  systemati- 
cally taugbt  in  some  of  our  large  towns.  One 
boy,  for  instance,  gives  tbis  account  of  bim- 
self :  "  His  fatber  was  a  soldier,  and  died  wben 
be  was  very  young,  leaving  bis  motber  unpro- 
vided for.     Tbe  only  means  of  ber  support 


172  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

was  obtained  by  begging  in  the  streets.  She 
died  about  nine  years  ago.  James,  conse- 
quently, was  left  very  young  without  any  one 
to  look  after  him  ;  he  soon  fell  among  thieves, 
and  was  taken  to  Wentworth  street,  in  White- 
chapel,  to  a  house  where  he  was  boarded  and 
lodged  for  six  months,  when  he  was  taught  to 
pick  pockets.  He  says  that  there  were  twenty 
more  boys  kept,  beside  himself,  for  the  same 
purpose,  by  a  man  and  woman  who  lived  by 
their  plunder.  Daily  the  woman  dressed  her- 
self, put  a  bell  in  her  pocket,  also  a  purse  con- 
taining 6d. ;  any  of  the  pupils  who  could  take 
the  purse  from  her  pocket  without  causing  the 
bell  to  tinkle,  got  the  6d.  as  a  reward  for  his 
dexterity.  He  remained  until  he  was  a  profi- 
cient pickpocket." 

The  extent  to  which  this  education  is  car- 
ried may  be  judged  of  by  the  details  furnished 
by  one  who  was  engaged  in  this  shocking  occu- 
pation. He  said  "  He  had  been  twenty  years 
living  a  criminal  life,  and  had  been  twenty 
times  in  prison.  He  resided  in  a  low  lodging- 
house,  where  he  carried  on  his  craft  of  train- 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      173 

iiig  voung  lads  to  steal.  The  best  hands 
amoag  them  were  sent  into  the  streets,  and 
they  brought  liome  the  plunder,  on  which  the 
criminal  scliool  lived.  He  was  too  well  known 
to  the  police  to  dare  to  go  out  himself.  '  But,' 
said  he,  '  I  never  can  keep  the  young  'uns  long, 
for  as  soon  as  I  have  made  them  clever  at  their 
profession,  if  they  are  not  taken  by  the  police 
they  leave  me  and  start  for  themselves ;  so 
that  I  am  obliged  to  look  out  for  new  hands.' 
Being  asked  how  many  lads  he  supposed  he 
had  trained  to  be  thieves  during  the  twenty 
years,  he  replied  that  he  had  kept  no  account, 
and  he  could  not  exactly  tell ;  but  of  this  he 
was  sure,  that  it  was  not  less  than  five  hundred  J* 
What  an  argument  these  cases  furnish  foi 
Ragged  Schools  !  Are  we  to  leave  these  un- 
happy children  to  be  regularly  trained  to 
crime,  and  then  imprison,  banish,  and  hang 
tliem  when  they  commit  it  ?  Their  blood  is 
on  our  heads  if  we  do  ;  nor  will  it  excuse  us 
to  say,  "Am  I  my  brother's  keeper  ?"  It  ouglit 
to  make  us  ashamed  of  ourselves,  that  while 
this  hoary  ruffian  had  trained  five  hundred 
1.5* 


174  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST;    OR, 

children  to  a  life  of  crime,  we,  perhaps,  never 
took  the  trouble  to  save  one. 

Tliis  business  often  has  enormous  success. 
Three  or  four  hundred  pounds  is  not  an  un- 
common income ;  and  yet,  though  that  is  a 
handsome  living,  paying  no  Income  Tax,  the 
annual  gains  of  some  are  far  greater — one  fam- 
ily of  coiners  in  England  having  cleared  in  a 
few  years  not  less  than  twenty  thousand 
pounds.  The  money  which  our  criminal  pop- 
ulation spend  on  their  vices  proves  indeed  that, 
as  a  class,  their  gains  far  exceed  the  wages  of 
our  honest  workmen.  The  amount  of  which 
they  plunder  others,  without  enriching  them- 
selves, may  be  conjectured  from  an  astounding 
fact,  stated  by  a  committee  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Liverpool  to  the  first  Birmingham  Associa- 
tion. According  to  their  report,  the  annual 
depredations  of  all  kinds  in  Liverpool  alone 
amounted  in  value  to  £700,000.  If  the  plun- 
der in  that  one  city  amounts  to  nearly  one 
million  of  money,  how  many  millions  does  the 
whole  country  lose  by  crimes  it  has  never 
taken  the  proper  way  to  cure  ? 


PLEAS   FOR    RA(JGEr)    SCHOOLS.  175 

Whether  it  be  better  to  establish  Ragged 
Schools,  and  thereby  cut  off  a  great  source  of 
crime,  or  to  have  thieves  levying  such  enor- 
mous revenues  as  appear  in  the  following  ta- 
bles, let  the  public  judge.  Here  are  some  spec- 
imens of  the  incomes  which  thieves  make,  and 
the  loss  which  the  community  suffers  ; — 

1.  Richard  Clarke,  during  a  career  of  6  years,  £2820 


2.  John  Clarke, 

11 

5 

it 

500 

3.  Edward  Clarke, 

(( 

3 

it 

1650 

4.  Ellen  Clarke,  (O'Neill) 

(t 

H 

(( 

1550 

5.  John  O'Neill, 

(t 

9 

ti 

1450 

6.  Thomas  O'Gar, 

i( 

6 

u 

300 

7.  James  O'Brien, 

(i 

H 

n 

1400 

8.  Thomas  M'Giverin, 

it 

1 

II 

1900 

9.  Thomas  Kelty, 

t( 

20 

(( 

8000 

10.  John  Flanagan, 

{< 

14 

II 

5800 

11.  John  Thompson, 

(C 

6 

i( 

1800 

12.  John  Bohanna, 

II 

6 

ti 

1500 

13.  J.  Shawe, 

u 

3 

t( 

600 

14.  W.  Buckley, 

u 

7 

II 

2100 

15.  Sarah  Dickenson, 

u 

3 

II 

630 

£32,000 

But  let  us  fix  our  attention  on  one  individual 
of  this  group ;  let  it  be  Flanagan.  He  was 
seventeen  times  in  prison,  and  caught  fifteen 
times  besides,  but  discharged  for  want  of  evi- 


1*76  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;   OR, 

dence.  In  1850  lie  got  to  the  end  of  his  tether 
and  was  at  length  transported.  Here  are  his 
transactions  during  three  years  ;  and  the  ta- 
bles, be  it  observed,  do  not  include  any  sums 
under  £10,  although  he  stated  that  these  con- 
siderably exceeded  those  above  that  sum  : — 

1838  and  1839. 
Value.  Where  robbery  committed.        From  whom. 
£20  Concert  Liverpool     .     .     A  gentleman. 
15  Theatre,  Liverpool    .     .     A  gentleman. 
11  Zoological  Gardens   .     .     A  lady. 
30  Coach-office.  Liverpool  .     Proprietors. 
46  Auction,  Broughton  Road  A  lady. 
30  Auction,  Cheetham  Hill      A  lady. 
15  Auction,  Pendleton 
21  Manchester      .     . 
50  Manchester      .     . 

1 1  Leek,  Strafford     . 
85  Hanley  Races 
49  Northallerton  Fair 

12  Liverpool  Packet 
18  Liverpool  Packet 
30  Liverpool  Packet 
45  Ilorncastle  Fair     . 
17  Leeds  Fair     • .     . 


A  lady. 

A  till  from  a  liquor-vault. 

A  till  from  a  public-house. 

A  shopkeeper. 

A  gentleman. 

A  drunken  farmer. 

A  passenger. 

A  passenger. 

A  passenger. 

A  lady. 

A  butcher. 


1840  and  184L 

10  Lincoln  Fair    ....  A  gentleman. 

14  Lincoln  Fair         .     .     .  Captain  of  a  boat 

10  Spalding  Fair  ....  A  farmer. 

11  Horncastlo  Fai.         .     .  A  maltster. 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     1T7 

Value.  Where  robbery  committed.  From  whom. 

£10  Liverpool  Races  ...  A  gentleman. 

16  Liverpool  Races  ...  A  farmer. 

1 7  Chester  Races  ....  A  lady. 

11  Manchester  Races    .     .     A  lady. 

1841  and  1842. 

10  Manchester  Theatre  .    .     A  lady. 

70  Bury  Fair A  cattle-dealer. 

250  In  the  street  at  Manchester  An  officer. 
15  Knutsford  Races  ...  A  jockey. 
30  Doucaster  Races   ...     A  publican. 

18  Nottingham  Races     .     .     A  butcher. 
14  Derby  Races     ....     Unknown. 

1 3  Crowle,  Lincoln    ...     A  publican's  wife. 

12  Caister.  Lincoln     ...     A  farmer. 

11  Market  Raisin  .         .    .     A  gentleman's  servant. 
60  Brigg  Fair A  farmer's  wife. 

21  Louth,  Lincolnshire  .     .     A  coachman. 
&c.  &c.  &c 

How  cheap  it  were  to  prevent  crime,  com- 
pared with  the  cost  either  of  maintaining  or 
of  punishing  it !  It  is  hard  to  say  whether  our 
folly  or  extravagance  has  been  most  conspicu- 
ous. Committed  to  jail,  and  maintained  there 
in  a  state  of  comparative  ease  and  idleness,  the 
felon  lives  in  some  respects  like  a  gentleman. 
Why,  such  a  sum  of  money  was  spent  in 
biiilding  York  Jail  that  the  lodging  alone  for 


178  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

each  prisoner  there  is  equal  to  an  annual  houF« 
rent  of  £40.  Every  criminal  in  jail  costs  the 
country,  at  an  average,  £30  or  £40  a  year  ; 
and  while  honest  men  have  to  eat  their  bread 
in  the  sweat  of  their  Ijrow,  these,  as  if  the  most 
meritorious  members  of  society,  are  found  in 
coal,  candles,  food,  clothes,  and  lodging.  With 
what  advantage?  The  system  has  proved  a 
greater  waste  than  pouring  water  on  a  sand- 
bed — the  culprit  has  gone  in  a  bad  man,  and 
comes  out  a  worse. 

Contrast  with  this  system  that  which,  in  old 
times,  obtained  among  the  Jews.  Apart  from 
its  divine  character,  how  wise  the  legislatioK 
of  Moses !  A  Hebrew,  for  example,  stole  at 
ox  ;  what  then  ?  They  did  not  throw  him  into 
jail  to  herd  with  congenial  rogues  ;  or  to  pine 
in  idle  solitude  ;  or  to  fret  at  the  weary  crank 
— a  wretched  device,  which,  turning  nothing 
but  an  index,  is  enough  to  turn  the  sweetest 
temper  into  gall  and  bitterness.  Still  less,  by 
the  execution  of  a  sentence  out  of  all  propor- 
tion to  the  offence,  did  they  commit  murder  in 
the  name  of  law,  and  hang  him  up  like  a  dog 


PLEAS    FOR    RAvJfJKD   SCHOOLS.  179 

that  worries  sheep.  In  tliis  case  paying  the 
penalty  was  no  figure  of  speech.  By  way  of 
punishment  he  was  required  to  pay  four  times 
the  value  of  the  ox ;  thus  the  injured  person 
was  amply  compensated,  while  none  were  tempt- 
ed to  suffer  wrong  rather  than  convict  the 
wrong-doer  ;  for  most  people  will  feel  that  the 
loss  to  them  of  a  few  pounds  is  only  made  the 
greater  by  knowing  tliat  the  man  who  took 
them  is  to  be  hanged.  But  what  if  the  culprit 
had  not  tlie  wherewithal  to  meet  his  punish- 
ment, the  money  to  pay  tlie  price  of  four  oxen  ? 
Mosaic  law  provided  for  this,  condemning  him 
to  work  as  a  temporary  slave  till  he  had  earned 
the  full  amount.  Now,  look  at  the  results! 
In  the  first  place,  the  injured  party  suffered  in 
the  end  no  wrong,  having  the  full  value  of 
what  he  had  lost  repaid  ;  secondly,  the  country 
had  to  bear  no  burden,  the  criminal  having  to 
maintain  himself  during  the  time  of  his  punish- 
ment ;  thirdly,  the  thief  himself,  if  idle  and 
useless  prior  to  his  offence,  became,  ere  he  had 
atoned  for  it,  a  skilled,  industrious  workman. 
If  we  read  our  Bibles  to  better  purpose,  we 


180  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST  ;    OB, 

would  neither  treat  our  decent  poor  so  harshly, 
nor  manage  our  criminals  so  foolishly. 

We  have  thousands  of  the  latter  class,  though 
not  as  in  former  days,  rioting,  or  rotting  in 
jails,  lying  there  in  comparative  idleness. 
Why  are  they  not  turned  out  to  build  harbors 
of  refuge  ;  to  make  roads  ;  to  drain  the  land  ? 
Enclosed  within  a  cordon  militaire  and  employ- 
ed on  such  works,  we  would  get  some  good  out 
of  them  ;  and  better  still,  they  themselves 
brought  into  a  healthy  condition  both  of  body 
and  mind,  and  trained  to  regular  habits  of 
industry,  might  become,  so  soon  as  the  term  of 
their  sentence  was  fulfilled,  useful  citizens  either 
at  home  or  in  the  colonies.  We  would  thus 
relieve  ourselves  of  a  great  burden,  and  bestow 
on  them  a  greater  boon. 

But  prevention  is  better  than  cure ;  and  so 
we  now  ask,  Why  should  not  Ragged  Schools 
be  applied  like  the  salt  of  Elisha  to  the 
fountains  of  crime — the  springs  of  the  cursed 
and  bitter  waters  ?  Three  hundred  pounds  is 
the  average  cost  for  each  criminal  before  the 
country  has  done  with  them,  and  that  is  usually 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED   SCHOOLS.  181 

when  they  are  dead  ;  liow  much  better  at  the 
cost  of  merely  thirty  pounds — all  that  is  needed 
for  the  full  education  and  maintenance  of  a 
child  at  a  Ragged  School — to  save  them  from 
ever  entering  on  a  life  of  crime  ?  The  numbers 
required  year  by  year  to  recruit  the  ranks  of 
criminals  gives  unspeakable  importance  to  that 
question.  The  average  period  of  their  career 
is  short,  not  extending  beyond  five  or  six 
years  ;  and  it  is  calculated  that  not  fewer  than 
twenty  thousand  annually  are  enlisted  into  this 
deviFs  regiment.  The  greater  part  of  these 
are  children. 

This  opens  up  a  dreadful  view  ;  and  I  should 
fail  in  my  duty  if  I  did  not  state  broadly  that 
most  of  those  children  owe  their  ruin  to  drink 
— to  the  dissipated  habits  of  their  parents, 
intemperance  is  the  horrid  Moloch,  tlie  ugly 
olood-stained  idol  to  which  so  many  young 
victims  are  annually  sacrificed.  Drunkenness, 
directly  or  indirectly,  supplies  our  Ragged 
Schools  with  scholars,  our  jails  with  prisoners, 
and  our  poor-houses  with  by  much  the  largest 
number  of  their  tenants.  In  England,  the 
16 


182  SEED-TIME   AND   HARVEST;   OB, 

portals  to  these  are  gin  palaces  and  beer-shops ) 
in  Scotland,  are  whisky  and  dram-shops.  But 
for  this  vice,  we  should  have  no  rags,  nor  Rag- 
ged Schools,  in  our  cities  ;  few  paupers  to 
lodge  in  poor-houses  ;  and  many  of  our  prisons, 
like  one  I  found  in  an  old  burgh  in  Fife,  sound- 
ing merrily  to  the  music  of  feet  and  fiddle, 
might  be  turned  into  dancing-schools.  Talk 
of  oui  weakness  as  a  nation  !  The  foreigner 
put  hih  finger  on  it  who  said.  It  is  a  blessed 
thing  that  you  Anglo-Saxons  are  a  drunken 
race  ;  }  ou  had  otherwise  conquered  the  whole 
world.  Talk  of  our  burdens  as  a  nation  !  The 
people  j^roan  under  no  taxes  to  be  compared 
with  those  which,  by  the  consumption  of  wine 
beer,  and  whisky,  they  impose  upon  themselves 
The  voice  of  our  prisons  is,  that  drinking  is  th(' 
chief  cau>"je  of  crime  ;  our  judges  have  arrived 
at  the  same  conclusion,  and  repeatedly  express- 
ed it  from  the  seat  of  justice ;  and,  however 
much  they  differ  on  points  of  theology,  on  this 
subject  ministers  and  city  missionaries  of  all 
denomincdons  are  of  the  same  opinion.  And 
it  is  inst/uctive  to  observe  that  drinking  is  the 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     183 

great  spring  of  crime  in  those  parts  of  the 
continent  where  the  habits  of  the  people  ap- 
proach our  own.  It  was  stated  the  other  day 
for  example,  by  Lord  Brougham,  on  the 
authority  of  Obermeyer,  the  well-known  and 
enlightened  governor  of  the  prison  in  Munich, 
that  there  and  in  Baden  almost  every  crime 
was  traceable  to  intemperance — to  the  use,  or 
as  some  would  say,  the  abuse  of  beer  and  wine. 
I  will  not  enter  on  the  question  whether 
Scotland  is  a  more  drunken  country  than  Eng- 
land. With  all  its  drunkenness,  I  will  not  de- 
ny my  country.  I  would  find  that  perhaps  asj 
useless  as  did  an  Irishman  of  my  acquaintance 
He  had  a  touch  of  the  brogue,  yet  so  boldl} 
claimed  to  be  an  'Englishman,  as  to  silence  if 
not  convince  us.  Unfortunately  for  him,  an 
Irifih  lady  who  lived  in  our  pension  in  Paris, 
had  not  forgotten,  though  slie  had  resided  long 
in  France,  the  habits  of  her  country.  Fixing 
her  keen  grey  eyes  on  him  one  day  at  dinner, 
she  said,  "  I  know  you,  sir,  to  be  an  Irishman'* 
— choking  the  lie  in  his  throat  by  this  charac- 
teristic, and  to  the  English  and  Scotch  part  of 


184  SEED-TIME  AND   HARVEST;   OR, 

the  company,  most  diverting  reason,  "  I  know 
it,  sir,  by  the  way  you  peel  your  potato  I"  T 
could  not  if  I  would  deny  my  country  ;  and  I 
would  not  if  I  could  deny  its  crimes,  since  the 
way  to  cure  evil  is  to  expose  it.  Still,  as  late 
Government  returns  demonstrate,  the  amount 
of  drinking  in  Scotland  has  been  grossly  exag- 
gerated ;  and  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  prove 
that  drunkenness  is  as  great  a  curse  on  the 
south  as  on  the  north  side  of  the  Border.  It 
is  but  fair  to  both  countries,  however,  to  re- 
mark that  a  large  proportion  of  what  appear 
to  be  our  crimes,  is  due  to  Irish  Roman  Catho- 
lics— their  presence  among  us  making  us  ap- 
pear much  lower  in  the  scale  of  morality  than 
we  would  otherwise  do.  L*'5ok,  for  example, 
at  this  extract  from  the  Police  Tables  of  Liver- 
pool, from  Sept.,  1858,  to  Sept.,  1859.  Its  Irish 
inhabitants  are,  of  course,  far  fewer  than  its 
English  population,  yet  observe  how  the  fol- 
lowing offences  committed  by  them  are  almost 
equal  in  number  to  those  committed  by  the 
whole  English  inhabitants  of  that  great  Eng- 
lish town  : — 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHUOLS.     185 

By  English.  By  Irislu 
Assaults  on  women  and  children, ....     Ill  86 

"         '*     on  peace  officers, 5G2  494 

' '        common 824  661 

Drunkenness, and  drunk  and  disorderly  4912  4080 

Larceny  under  value  of  5s., 784  836 

I  consider  it  as  one  of  the  most  promising 
signs  of  our  age,  that  the  public  are  now  com- 
ing to  regard  intemperance  as  a  gigantic  evil. 
Should  they  not  ?  It  can  be  proved  to  demon- 
stration, that  every  shop  opened  for  the  mere 
purpose  of  drinking,  whether  wine,  beer,  or 
spirits,  is  injurious  to  the  ivell-heing  of  society  ; 
is  not  only  a  public-house  but  a  public  nui- 
Bance.  The  wonder  is,  that  our  country  has  so 
long  tolerated  a  system  whereby  a  few  build 
up  fortunes  out  of  the  wreck  and  utter  ruin  of 
many.  Indeed,  I  am  surprised  at  good,  excel- 
lent, pious  Christians  continuing  to  lend  the 
influence  of  their  example  to  the  use  of  such 
stimulants  ;  knowing  as  they  do,  that  these 
ruin,  have  ruined,  and  will  continue  to  ruin, 
not  once  for  all,  but  year  by  year,  the  happi- 
ness, and  homes,  and  bodies,  and  souls  of  thou- 
sands. They  destroy  the  peace  of  so  many 
IG* 


186  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST;    OB, 

families,  and  doom  so  many  children  to  starva- 
tion and  rags  ;  they  drive  so  many  poor  girls 
to  the  streets,  and  so  often  blight  the  fairest 
blossoms  of  youth  ;  they  break  so  many  lov- 
ing hearts,  and  bring  so  many  grey  heads  with 
sorrow  to  the  grave,  that  I  have  felt  con- 
strained to  say,  I  will  drink  none  of  them 
while  the  world  standeth,  lest  I  make  a  broth- 
er to  offend.  It  is  due  to  the  cause  of  Total 
Abstinence  to  add,  that  while  in  joining  its 
ranks,  I  sought  only  the  public  good,  I  hav« 
found  my  own  in  four  personal  advantages — 
stronger  health,  a  clearer  head,  a  lighter  heart, 
and  a  heavier  purse. 

While  the  dissipated  habits  of  many  create 
that  supply  of  juvenile  delinquents  which 
keeps  the  number  of  our  criminals,  these, 
trained  by  their  parents,  or  forced  by  circum- 
stances into  a  life  of  crime,  are  far  more  de- 
serving of  pity  than  of  austere  punishment. 
One  of  our  annual  reports  thus  describes  their 
condition  : — 

Found  homeless,  and  provided  with  lodgings,     72 
Children  with  both  parents  dead, 33 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      187 

With  the  father  dead, 140 

Mother  dead, ^* 

Deserted  by  parents, *^ 

With  one  or  both  parents  transported, 9 

Fatherless,  with  drunken  mothers, 77 

Motherless,  with  drunken  fathers, 68 

With  both  parents  worthless, 84 

Who  have  been  beggars ^' l 

Who  have  been  in  the  Police  Office, 75 

Who  have  been  in  Prison, 20 

Known  as  children  of  Thieves, 76 

Believed  to  be  so,  including  the  preceding, 148 

I'Ms  is  a  modern  edition  of  the  prophet'3 
re  II,  written  within  and  without,  with  "  lamen- 
tation, and  mourning,  and  woe."  Though  a 
lady  had  once  the  politeness  to  ask  me  whether 
I  invented  my  stories,  these,  be  assured,  are 
facts,  not  fancies.  How  do  they  appeal  to 
your  pity,  and  recommend  our  schools,— the 
only  hope  they  have,  that  are  ready  to  perish  ? 
formerly  all  these  children  found  their  way  to 
the  jail.  No  man  cared  for  their  souls,  or 
commiserated  their  condition.  Banishing  what 
it  did  not  hang,  the  country  shipped  off  thou- 
sands to  rot  and  fester  in  our  colonies,  till 
these,  rising  as  one  man,  declared  that  they 
would  have  no  more  of  our  refuse  and  waste  ; 


188  SEED-TIME    AXD   HARVEST;   OR, 

that,  if  we  would  grow  criminals,  we  should 
keep  them.  Many  seemed  born  for  the  gal- 
lows, and  coolly  calculated  on  being  hanged, 
— as  sailors  do  on  being  drowned,  or  soldiers, 
in  time  of  war,  on  being  shot.  I  happened 
once  to  find  them  at  their  rehearsals.  They 
had  a  ragged  urchin  suspended  by  a  rope 
thrown  over  the  door-lintel  of  an  old  house. 
The  noose  was  dexterously  placed  under  his 
arm-pits  ;  but  the  way  he  hung  his  head,  and 
mimicked  the  dying  spasms,  drew  up  his  legs, 
and  kicked,  was  perfect.  So  thought  his  com- 
panions. The  young  savages  danced  round 
him  in  wildest  glee,  and  greeted  each  kick 
with  roars  of  laughter.  They  were  familiar 
with  hanging  ;  nor  much  wonder,  since  New 
gate,  for  instance,  used  to  show  ten  or  a  dozea 
old  ruffians  with  boys,  strung  up  like  vermin, 
and  slowly  turning  round  in  the  morning  air, 
with  their  white  caps, — waiting  to  be  cut 
down.     Horrible  sight ! 

Before  showing  how  Eagged  Schools — bet- 
ter every  way  than  hanging,  banishing,  or  im- 
prisoning— have  met  the  evils  of  society,  let 


PLEAS   FOR   RACfiED   SCHOOLS.  189 

US  glance  at  the  statistics  of  juvenile  criminals 
in  England.  They  are  very  appalling.  The 
number  of  juvenile  offenders  committed  in  one 
year  was  not  less  than  15,507  ;  and  in  another 
year  11,420.  Of  these,  one  only  had  received 
a  superior  education  ;  and  of  the  whole  11,420 
there  were  only  196  who  could  read  and  write 
well  ;  and  since  such  a  smattering  of  educa- 
tion as  leaves  a  man  unable  to  read  with  ease 
is,  for  all  practical  purposes,  no  better,  in  nine- 
ty-nine cases  out  of  a  hundred,  than  no  educa- 
tion wliatever,  out  of  11,410  juvenile  delin- 
quents, there  were  in  fact  11,223  who  may  be 
said  not  to  have  been  educated  at  all.  What 
a  disgrace  to  the  nation !  And  what  right  had 
society  to  come  down  with  its  vengeance  on 
those  it  had  so  shamefully  neglected  ? 

Now,  to  show  how  Ragged  Schools  meet 
this  evil,  and  furnish  the  best  cure  for  crime— 
the  cheapest,  most  humane,  and  holiest  remedy 
— look  at  the  effect  of  our  school  on  the  pris- 
on I  It  is  very  remarkable.  As  the  rooms  of 
the  school  filled,  the  cells  of  the  prison  emp- 
tied.    Our  increase  was  their  decrease.     The 


190  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

stream  flowing  into  the  jail  grew  less  and 
less,  and  it  was  plain  to  everybody  that  we 
liad  struck  one  great  spring — and  were  drain- 
iu,o-  it  off.  Here  are  the  returns  furnished  by 
Mr.  Smith,  the  excellent  governor  of  our  jail. 
Our  school  was  opened  in  the  summer  of  1847, 
but  could  not  tell  much,  of  course,  on  the  re- 
turns of  that  year. 


\" 


In  1847  the  centesimal  proportion  of  children 
under  14  years  of  age  in  prison  was 

1848 3.7 

1849 2.9 

1850 1.3 

1851 9 

1858 1.7 

1859 1.2 

There  has  been  also  a  remarkable  decrease 
in  tlie  commitments  of  prisoners  from  14  to  16 
years  of  age. 

Tlie  number  of  prisoners  between  14  and  16  years  of  age 
was,  in 

1848 653 

1849 440 

1850 361 

1851  .......  227 

1858 138 

1859 130 

These  returns  demonstrate  the  success  of  ouv 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      VM 

schools  ;  since,  in  the  short  space  of  four  years, 
we  reduced  the  commitments  of  juveniles  to 
one-tenth  part  of  what  tliey  were  before  the 
schools  were  opened  :  and  what  variation  ap- 
pears in  these  returns  down  to  the  present 
time,  only  proves  the  necessity  of  a  more  ex- 
tended application  of  our  system.  It  may  be 
regarded  as  a  work  of  supererogation,  yet  I 
add  the  testimony  borne  by  the  head  of  our 
police.  He  says,  "  I  cannot  too  strongly  ex- 
press my  sense  of  the  value  and  importance  of 
the  Ragged  Schools,  as  one  of  the  principal 
means  of  ameliorating  the  condition  of  desti- 
tute and  outcast  children,  and  rescuing  them 
from  those  evil  influences,  which,  if  unchecked, 
nmst  necessarily  tend  to  make  them  hardened 
criminals.  Being  fully  persuaded  that  tlie  ex- 
tended operation  of  such  a  system  is  the  most 
likely  agency  for  arresting  the  alarming  prog- 
ress of  crime  in  our  large  towns,  I  cannot 
but  state  my  earnest  conviction  that  on  grounds 
both  of  humanity  and  expediency  the  Ragged 
Schools  have  the  highest  possible  claim  on  the 
public  for  continued  and  increased  support. 


192  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

It  is  very  satisfactory  to  know  that  all  the 
Ragged  Schools  in  Scotland  show  correspond- 
ing results.  And  though  the  system  of  Rag- 
ged, Feeding,  and  Industrial  Schools  has  not 
been  so  fully  applied  in  England,  yet  there 
also  the  effect  of  these,  or  of  kindred  institu- 
tions, has  attracted  the  attention  of  the  public 
authorities.  In  a  speech,  for  instance,  deliv- 
ered lately  by  the  Chairman  of  the  Sessions 
for  the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  he  noticed 
the  marked  decrease  of  crime,  and  attributed 
it  to  the  fact,  that  "  a  large  number  of  little 
boys,  instead  of  being  now  available  as  assist- 
ants to  bigger  thieves,  are  lodged  within  the 
walls  of  Reformatories  or  Ragged  Schools." 

Like  the  Hebrew  High-Priest,  arrayed  in 
sacred  vestments,  and  holding  aloft  the  smok- 
ing censer,  we  have  stood  between  the  living 
and  the  dead,  and  have  stayed  the  plague. 
We  have  arrested  the  waters  that  were  descend- 
ing headlong  into  that  Dead  Sea,  on  whose 
arid  shore  no  green  thing  grows,  in  whose  wa- 
ters no  creature  lives,  to  whose  dark  bosom 
the  stream  runs  in  but  not  a  drop  runs  out ;  not 


PLEAS   FOR   RAPaiRD    SCHOOLS.  Kt6 

only  so,  but  we  have  turned  them  aside  to  bless 
and  fertilize  the  land.  We  have  stayed  the 
progress  of  crime.  Leaving  others  to  wear 
blood-stained  laurels,  and  boast  of  tliousands 
slain  in  battle,  we  esteem  ourselves  happier  ;  we 
point  to  thousands  plucked  from  the  jaws  of 
ruin  and  saved  for  society — not  a  few  of  them, 
we  trust,  for  God  and  heaven.  For  these 
schools,  therefore,  as  a  means  of  checking  the 
course  of  crime,  of  turning  wretchedness  into 
happiness,  vice  into  virtue,  a  nation's  weakness 
into  a  nation's  strength,  and  public  burdens 
into  public  blessings,  I  claim  the  eulogium  of 
Holy  Writ :  "  Many  daughters  have  done  vir- 
tuously, but  thou  excellest  them  all." 

III.  By  means  of  Ragged  Schools,  thousands 
of  miserable  children  have  been  turned  into 
happy  and  valuable  members  of  society. 

"  Understandest  what  thou  readest  ?"  the 
question  which  Philip  put  to  the  Ethiopian  is 
one  I  keep  in  view  on  occasional  visits  to  the 
Ragged  School.  The  words,  "  l)ed  of  down," 
occurred  one  day  in  the  lesson.  I  asked  their 
meaning.  The  children  knew  little  of  "  down  ;' 


194  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

to  soft  beds,  soft  words,  soft  endearments,  they 
had  been  strangers  till  we  took  them  into  our 
arms.  They  were  fairly  puzzled  ;  though  sharp 
as  needles,  and  very  precocious — a  well-marked 
feature  of  creatures  whose  wits  are  sharpened 
at  a  too  early  age,  on  the  hard  grindstone  of 
necessity.  At  length  a  bright  idea  struck  one 
little  fellow.  His  eye  gleamed  with  triumph, 
and,  sure  of  vaulting  to  the  top  of  the  class, 
he  blurted  out,  in  case  any  one  should  antici- 
pate him,  "  Bed  of  down,  sir,  bed  of  down  is  a 
bed  on  the  floor  !"  Poor  child  !  it  was  all  h€ 
knew  of  it.  There  Avas  more  of  real  misery 
than  Irish  wit  in  that  answer. 

Would  that  all  mothers,  when  they  bless  and 
kiss  their  little  ones  snugly  wrapt  in  cosy  cot, 
thought  of  those  who  are  more  familiar  with 
blows  than  blessings  ;  never  knew  a  mother's 
love  ;  get  more  curses  than  caresses  ;  and  lie 
down,  many  a  night,  shivering  and  hungry  on 
the   naked  floor. 

How  much  human  misery  is  unveiled,  and 
what  a  touching  appeal  is  made  to  our  kind 
compassions,  for  instance,  by  this  fact !    Some 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      195 

years,  measles  broke  out  in  our  school.  Domi- 
ciliary visits  were  paid  to  the  sufferers  ;  and  of 
fifty-five  cases  there  were  but  three  where  we 
found  even  the  vestige  of  a  bed.  Of  these  lit- 
tle sufferers,  fifty-two  had  no  bed-clothes  but 
their  body  rags,  nor  couch  but  the  bare  hard 
boards  of  tlie  floor.  Our  dogs  and  cats  liave 
comforts  whicli  Christian  men  and  women 
withhold  from  their  fellow-creatures.  And 
how  peopl'e,  not  flint-hearted,  who  hear  of  such 
facts,  and  see  these  children  prowling  haggard, 
hungry,  and  wolf-like  about  the  streets,  can 
bend  their  way  home  to  "  eat  the  fat  and 
drink  the  sweet,"  nor  give  a  sigli  to  this  mis- 
ery, or  a  sixpence  to  these  wants,  is  to  me  a 
mystery.  Calling  tlicmselves  followers  of 
Jesus,  in  the  sympathies  of  his  nature  they  are 
not  so.  Kind  and  blessed  Lord !  he  had  tears 
for  all  human  suftering.  He  made  himself 
poor  that  he  might  make  others  rich — witli- 
holding  neither  his  love  nor  his  life-blood. 
Surely  many  forget  that  Self-Denial,  not  Self- 
indulgence,  is  the  motto  of  our  faith.  Since 
the  days  when,  helmed  for  battle  with  men  or 


196  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST;    OR, 

monsters,  brave  knights  rode  forth  from  castle 
gates  to  right  the  wrongs  of  the  oppressed, 
sharing  their  loaf  and  dividing  their  cloak  in 
winter  among  miserable  wretches,  more  than 
chivalry  seems  gone.  One  would  sometimes 
think  that  Christianity  herself  was  dead,  and 
mute  the  voice  which  said,  "  Is  not  this  the  fast 
which  I  have  chosen,  to  deal  thy  bread  to  the 
hungry  ;  and  that  thou  bring  the  poor  that  are 
cast  out  to  thy  house  ;  when  thou  seest  the 
naked  that  thou  cover  him  ;  and  that  thou 
hide  not  thyself  from  thine  own  flesh  ?" 

Our  schools  are  nothing  else  than  a  practi- 
cal application  of  these  rules — the  rules  of  a 
Book  which  teaches  you  that  by  the  very  test 
to  which  we  are  submitting  them,  you  shall 
yourselves  be  tried.  And  woe  to  the  man 
who,  on  trial  for  his  life  at  the  bar  of  a  right- 
eous God,  shall  have  to  face  as  accusers  one, 
and  another,  and  another,  that  joint  to  him, 
saying,  "  I  was  an  hungered,  and  he  gave  me 
no  meat ;  I  was  thirsty,  and  he  gave  me  no 
drink  ;  I  was  a  stranger,  and  he  took  me  not 
in  ;  naked,  and  he  clothed  me  not ;  sick,  and 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.      197 

in  prison,  and  lie  visited  me  not."  Then  shall 
Jesus  say,  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  to  one 
of  the  least  of  these,  ye  did  it  not  to  me." 

God  forbid  that  I  should  judge  any  !  Only 
I  cannot  comprehend  the  humanity  of  the  man 
who  stands  on  a  stormy  beach  with  a  wre<;k 
before  him,  drowning  wretches  hanging  in  its 
shrouds,  their  pitiful  cries  wafted  to  his  ears, 
their  imploring  hands  stretched  out  for  help, 
and  who  does  not,  I  don't  say  leap  into  the 
life-boat  when  gallant  men  are  calling  for  an- 
other hand,  but  who  does  not  regard  tliis 
dreadful  scene  otherwise  than  with  cold  indif- 
ference. Nor  do  I  understand  the  religion  of 
the  man  or  woman  who  does  nothing  to  save 
poor  boys  from  a  fate  worse  than  shipwreck, 
and  young  girls  from  one  worse  than  twenty 
deaths.  Death !  The  life  of  crime  befo  re 
them,  should  they  survive  the  cold,  and  hunger, 
and  neglect,  under  which  they  sink  by  thou- 
sands into  an  early  grave,  is  sucli  that  I  have 
been  thankful  to  see  them  dead  ;  lying  in  tlicir 
rude  coffins  ;  safe  in  God's  arms  ;  away  from 
the  brutal  father,  whose  staggering  step  and 
17* 


198  SEED-TIME   AND   HARVEST  :   OR 


boisterous  voice,  that  poor,  pale,  peaceful  form 
no  more  trembles  to  hear.  It  was  an  awful 
thing  to  see  a  mother  who  hung  over  her  sick 
boy's  couch,  and  fondly  kissed  him,  drop  on 
her  knees  and  passionately  pray  to  God  that 
he  might  never  rise  from  that  bed,  but  die — die 
there.  No  wonder.  Eleven  summers  had  gone 
over  that  young  head,  yet  life  had  been  all  bit- 
ter winter  to  him.  He  had  been  starved  by  a 
drunken  father  ;  driven  on  the  street,  forced 
into  crime.  None  of  all  who  went  to  church 
wrapped  up  in  comforts,  Bible  or  Prayer-book 
in  hand,  had  cared  for  him,  poor  wretch  !  He 
had  to  steal,  or  starve  ;  do  wrong,  or  die.  He 
has  been  thrice  in  jail.  And  seeing  no  pros- 
pect for  him  but  the  cold  hands  of  the  hang- 
man working  about  that  young  neck,  no  great 
wonder  his  mother  wished  him  dead — willing 
rather  to  trust  him  to  the  mercy  of  her  God  than 
to  what  they  call  the  justice  of  men.  Think 
of  the  miseries  that  wring  such  prayers  from  a 
mother's  lips  !  and  hasten  to  our  help — to  the 
help  of  the  Lord  against  the  mighty ! 

Now,  of  all  means.  Ragged  Schools  offer 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     199 

the  surest,  shortest  way  to  an  end  devoutly  to 
be  wished  for.  Prisons  and  punishment  are 
acknowledged  failures  ;  so  are  street  alms,  so 
is  casual  charity,  whatever  shape  it  assumes. 
In  too  many  instances  it  feeds,  not  the  children, 
but  the  vices  which  are  their  ruin  ;  and  thus 
exasperates  the  misery  which  benevolence  seeks 
to  relieve. 

Here  is  the  way  we  treat  the  case.  These 
children,  as  I  have  already  stated  in  my  Sec- 
ond Plea,  come  to  our  school  in  the  morning, 
and  do  not  leave  us  till  evening.  Those  whose 
homes  are  so  cruel  or  so  vicious  that  they 
would  certainly  suffer  from  passing  the  night 
there,  sleep  within  our  walls.  In  the  words 
of  Count  de  Metz,  the  founder  of  the  celebra- 
ted school  of  Mettray,  "  We  go  to  the  work 
with  the  gospel  in  our  hands  ;"  our  highest 
object  being  to  train  them  in  the  knowledge  of 
divine  truth — in  the  fear  and  love  of  God. 
They  receive  a  good  secular  education,  and  are 
brought  up  also  to  industrial  occupations.  The 
girls  learn  to  sew,  to  knit,  to  wash,  to  cook  ; 
while  the  boys  are  trained  up  as  tailors,  shoe- 


UOO  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

makers,  and  boxmakers,  or  carpenters.  In 
our  country  establishment,  within  a  mile  of 
Edinburgh,  we  teach  them  to  handle  the  axe, 
the  hoe,  and  the  spade,  fitting  them  for  emigra- 
tion or  rural  labors.  So  much  time,  each  day, 
is  allotted  for  play.  Every  morning  they  go 
through  their  ablutions  with  Eastern  precision; 
and  to  ensure  regular  attendance,  as  well  as 
meet  the  necessities  of  their  poverty,  they  re- 
ceive three  substantial  meals  each  day.  Pun- 
ishments are  rare.  We  work  by  love  and 
kindness  ;  and,  though  on  entering  our  school 
they  were  foul  as  the  gutter  out  of  which  they 
had  been  plucked,  unbroken  as  the  wild  Arab 
or  wild  ass  of  the  desert,  ignorant  of  every- 
thing that  is  good,  rags  on  their  backs  and 
misery  in  their  looks  ;  such  change  comes  over 
them  that  better-behaved  scholars,  sharper  in- 
tellects, happier  faces,  you  will  see  nowhere. 

Talk  of  Rarey,  the  celebrated  horse  breaker ! 
we  accomplish  feats  that  outshine  his.  I  re- 
member one  day  seeing  a  child  just  brought  in 
from  the  Police  Office.  It  was  a  little  lean, 
withered,  old  looking  creature  ;  lost  in  a  gown 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     201 

made  for  a  grown-up  woman  ;  her  head  buried 
in  a  large,  faded,  coal  scuttle-shaped  bonnet, 
the  relic  of  a  by-gone  fashion,  at  the  far  end 
of  which  one  could  see  a  wild,  woe-begone  face. 
Poor  soul,  it  was  plain  that  she  had  never  been 
at  school  before  ;  she  sat  amazed,  still  as  a  post, 
as  if  her  queer,  stunted  figure  had  been  cut  out 
of  stone  ;  nothing  about  her  looked  alive,  but 
the  two  grey  eyes  which  went  rolling  round 
and  round  in  blank  amaze.  She  had  all  the 
look  of  a  newly-caught  hare,  seized  in  her 
form.  In  three  weeks  you  would  not  have  rec- 
ognized that  child.  What  a  marvellous  change 
do  the  allied  powers  of  patience  and  porridge 
work !  These  creatures  gradually  lose  their 
savage  air  ;  the  sharp  angularities  of  starva- 
tion get  beautifully  rounded  off  in  fat  and 
flesh  ;  health  blooms  on  the  rosy  check  ;  and 
the  hangdog,  cunning,  low,  suspicious  look 
gives  place  to  an  honest  bearing,  and  an  open, 
cheerful  countenance.  There  are  not  a  few 
very  pretty  children  in  our  school  ;  and  as  to 
the  girls,  with  their  industrial  training,  they 
are  more  fit  to  be  skilful,  frugal  wives,  to  mend 


202  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST  ;    OR 

their  man's  coat,  to  darn  his  stockings,  to  dress 
liis  linen,  to  cook  his  food,  and  keep  a  tidy  house 
and  clean  fireside,  than  lasses  with  gay  ribbons 
and  more  pretensions.  Such  are  the  children 
within  our  school. 

But  what  of  the  fruits  of  the  system  as 
brought  out  in  their  future  career  ?  Since  our 
doors  were  opened  in  1847,  besides  many  wlio 
received  a  partial  education,  and  not  a  few 
whose  parents,  rising  into  better  circumstan- 
ces, removed  thorn  to  higher  schools,  not  less 
than  five  hundred  cliildren  have  left  our  walls 
to  play  their  part  in  life.  They  are  playing  it 
well.  Considering  the  great  disadvantages 
of  their  outset  in  life,  we  have  to  state  as  a 
marvellous,  as  well  as  most  gratifying  result, 
that  as  large  a  proportion  of  them  have 
proved  honest,  industrious,  useful  members  of 
society  as  any  other  class  can  show.  This 
more  than  rewards  all  our  anxieties  and  la- 
bors ;  and  cannot  be  contemplated  by  any 
right-minded  persons  without  their  heart  warm- 
ing to  Ragged  Schools.  Yon  gallant  boat 
that  plies  between  the  wreck  and  the  shore, 


PLEAS    FOH    UACfJED    SCHOOLS.  203 

and  on  which,  as  she  rises  to  the  swell  of  the 
sea,  all  eyes  are  intently  fixed,  is  but  an  image 
of  our  schools.  If  our  work  has  not  the 
splendor  that  surrounds  brave  deeds,  it  has  a 
better  and  more  enduring  glory.  It  has  saved 
the  perishing  from  a  wreck  worse  than  the 
stranded  ship's — from  a  fate  far  worse  than 
the  bubbling  groan  and  brief  struggle  of  men 
whelmed  in  the  deep.  It  is  preeminently  a 
Saviour-like  work.  We  go  to  seek  the  lost. 
And  these  five  hundred  children  show  how 
Heaven  has  smiled  on  our  efforts,  and  what  a 
promising  field  Ragged  Schools  open  up  for 
Christian  benevolence !  Nowhere  can  labor 
and  money  count  with  such  certainty  on  meet- 
ing with  a  sure  reward. 

It  seems  like  lowering  a  noble  cause  to  in- 
troduce the  consideration  of  money,  and  plead 
for  it  on  the  score  of  economy.  It  is  a  great 
stoop  from  the  lofty  heights  of  Religion,  Pity, 
Humanity,  Justice,  and  Mercy,  to  come  down 
to  pounds,  shillings,  and  pence.  Yet  I  can 
demonstrate  that  ours,  the  kindest  and  holiest, 
is  the  cheapest  policy.     It  has  been,  as  I  have 


204  SEED-TIME   AND   HARVEST  ;   OR, 

already  stated,  calculated  that  every  child  left 
to  grow  up  a  criminal,  costs  the  country,  on  an 
average,  not  less  than  three  hundred  pounds. 
Let  us  suppose  then  that  but  one  half  of  these 
five  hundred,  whom  this  single  school  has  saved, 
had  run  a  career  of  crime  ;  they  would  have 
involved  the  State  in  an  outlay  of  seventy-five 
thousand  pounds.  Now,  during  the  twelve 
years  of  its  existence,  our  school  has  cost  some 
£24,000  ;  the  amount,  therefore,  saved  to  the 
country  is  just  the  difference  between  that  sum 
and  £75,000— that  is,  £51,000.  But  make  the 
much  more  probable  supposition  that  at  least 
two-thirds  of  these  children  would,  but  for  our 
school,  have  developed  into  full-blown  crimi- 
nals, then,  besides  rescuing  them  from  a  life  of 
crime  and  misery,  we  have  saved  the  State  in 
actual  money,  a  sum,  in  round  figures,  equal  to 
the  difference  between  £24,000  and  £96,000. 
With  that  fact  before  them,  a  saving  in  twelve 
years  of  £72,000  effected  by  this  one  benev- 
olent institution,  were  our  Governments  and 
Parliaments  wise,  and  not,  to  use  a  common 
proverb,  penny  wise  and  pound  foolish.  Rag- 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     205 

ged  Schools  would  be  regarded  as  having  the 
foremost  claim  on  the  public  funds.  They 
would  be  made  to  cover,  as  a  network,  all 
the  wretched  districts  of  the  large  cities  of  our 
land. 

Seventy-two  thousand  golden  sovereigns,  fresh 
from  the  Mint,  piled  up  in  a  glittering  heap,  on 
the  floor  of  our  school,  represents  the  money 
gain  accruing  to  the  country  from  the  opera- 
tion of  our  school.  A  sight  this  enough  to 
dazzle  the  eyes  and  win  the  patronage  of  a 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  ;  yet  some  three 
years  ago,  I  saw  its  golden  harvests  gath- 
ered on  that  floor  after  a  nobler  fashion. 

Many  of  our  children,  on  completing  their 
education,  have  gone  forth  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth.  Some  are  in  Canada,  felling  the  for- 
est ;  some  in  New  Zealand  and  Australia  are 
tending  flocks  :  some  have  fought  in  the  Cri- 
mea, and  some  in  battles  on  the  deep.  Besides 
those  who  had  gone  abroad  as  emigrants. 
or  entered  the  army  or  navy,  we  knew  that  a 
goodly  number  of  them  were,  with  erect  and 
honest  bearing,  walking  the  streets  where  they 
18 


206  SEED-TIME   AND   HARVEST  ;   OR. 

once  prowled — outcasts  and  beggars.  So, 
about  three  years  ago,  when  constituents  were 
giving  banquets  to  their  members,  and  joyous 
cities  were  feasting  the  heroes  of  the  Russian 
war,  we  resolved  to  pay  some  honor  to  those 
who,  in  their  own  field,  had  had  as  hard  a  fight 
and  as  difficult  a  part  to  play.  Cards  of  invi- 
tation were  accordingly  issued  to  such  of  our 
old  scholars  as  we  could  find  in  town.  The 
fete  came  off  about  Christmas  time.  We  did 
the  thing  handsomely.  Our  largest  room  was 
brilliantly  lighted  ;  ivy,  branches  of  laurel, 
and  blooming  flowers  festooned  the  walls  ; 
while  long  tables  groaned  under  ample  stores 
of  coffee,  tea,  cookies,  buns,  and  cakes  of  all 
sorts.  It  fell  to  me,  as  a  kind  of  head  of  the 
house,  to  do  the  honors.  The  hour  of  recep- 
tion arrived.  The  tread  and  shuffling  of  many 
feet  rose  on  the  stairs.  The  living  stream  set 
in — a  constant  succession  of  sober,  well-to-do 
like  young  men  and  women,  with  all  of  whom, 
of  course,  I  heartily  shook  hands  ;  wives,  once 
Ragged  School  girls,  were  there,  with  blushes 
and  honest  pride,  introducing  their  husbands 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     207 

to  me  ;  and  husbands,  once  Ragged  School 
boys,  their  wives.  A.11  were  well,  and  some 
even  genteelly  dressed  ;  without  a  rag  on  their 
backs,  or  trace  of  wretcliedness  in  their  bright 
and  happy  faces  ;  self-supporting  ;  upright ; 
earning  by  honest  industry  wages  that  ranged 
from  the  three  or  four  shillings  a  week  of  the 
apprentice  boy  to  the  thirty  or  forty  shillings 
of  the  skilled  workman,  shopman,  or  clerk.  It 
was  a  marvellous  sight. 

Old  neighbors  were  astounded  at  the  sad 
change  time  had  wrought  upon  Naomi.  On 
seeing  the  widow  bend  her  steps  along  the 
streets  of  Bethlehem,  grey  with  age,  poorly 
clad,  and  stooping  beneath  a  load  of  grief  and 
poverty,  they  could  hardly  believe  their  eyes  ; 
but  held  up  their  hands  to  cry,  "  Is  this  Nao- 
mi ?"  I  was  ready,  for  opposite  reasons,  to 
ask,  "  Are  these  my  Kagged  School  children  ? 
The  Lord  hath  done  great  things  for  us  ;  where- 
of we  are  glad."  They  were  a  hundred  and 
fifty  in  all.  What  happy  faces  they  wore ! 
How  joyous  to  meet  again  within  those  walls? 
With  nothing  stronger  than  tea  and  coifee,  how 


208  SEED-TIME  AND   HARVEST  ;   OR, 

their  spirits  rose  to  the  highest  pitch  ;  and 
what  a  merry  ring  was  in  their  laugh.  What 
heartiness  in  their  fun  ;  and  also  in  their  feed- 
ing I  How  some  of  them  did  enjoy  them- 
selves !  One  of  my  daughters,  who  presided 
at  a  table,  told  me  of  a  boy  who  drank  an 
ocean  of  tea,  ten  cups  at  the  least.  The  even- 
ing flew  away  on  lightsome  wings — songs  were 
sung  ;  good  counsels  given  ;  prayers  were  of- 
fered and  blessings  asked.  We  lingered  over 
the  scene.  Nor  could  I  look  on  that  gathering 
of  young  men  and  women — so  respectably  clad, 
and  wearing  such  an  air  of  decency — and  think 
what,  but  for  the  Ragged  School,  they  would 
have  been,  without  tears  of  joy — gratitude  to 
God,  full  to  overflowing.  It  was  a  sight  worth 
living  for.  It  was  our  harvest  home.  "  Our 
joy  was  according  to  the  joy  of  harvest,  and 
as  men  rejoice  when  they  divide  the  spoil." 
Such  are  Ragged  Schools.  Trees  of  life,  let 
them  be  planted  in  every  city — their  leaves  are 
for  the  healing  of  the  people. 

In  drawing  this  appeal  to  a  close,  let  me  re- 
mark tliat  while  there  is  no  machinery  so  well 


PLEAS   FOR   RAGGED   SCHOOLS.  209 

fitted  ultimately  to  raise  the  lowest  classes,  (lie 
classes  dangereuses  of  our  large  cities,  there  are 
few  even  of  our  small  towns  tliat  do  not  need 
a  Ragged,  Feeding,  Industrial  School.  Nor 
should  benevolent  people  wait  until  the 
school,  with  its  rooms,  and  staff  of  teachers, 
and  board  of  directors,  is  set  up.  There  is  a 
quiet  way  of  reaching  our  object,  of  saving 
the  lost,  in  which  many  might  engage  who  are 
idly  wasting  their  time  and  .talents.  None  of 
us  liveth  to  himself;  no  man  or  woman  should. 
Yet,  in  this  country,  what  an  immense  amount 
of  female  power  is  latent — lost  to  God  and  to 
the  world  !  I  know  a  person  in  a  humble  posi- 
tion— she  is  a  blacksmith's  wife — who,  sparing 
some  hours  each  day  for  the  work,  has  edu- 
cated not  a  few  of  the  neglected  children  of 
the  village  where  she  resides.  Her  name, 
though  unknown  to  fame,  is  known  in  heaven  , 
and,  better  than  on  gold  or  marble,  is  graven 
on  loving  hearts.  How  many  ladies  there  are, 
who,  treading  in  her  humble  footsteps,  could 
change  a  languid  into  a  bright,  happy,  blessed 
life  I  In  this  world  of  sin  and  misery  time 
18* 


210  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OB, 

ought  not  to  be  wasted  on  trifles  ;  and  need 
hang  heavy  on  no  one's  hands.  What  i?  to 
hinder  many  in  circumstances  of  ease  and  com- 
parative affluence,  to  collect  some  half-dozen 
neglected  children  into  a  room,  and,  spread- 
ing before  them  one  plain  meal,  devote  three 
hours  each  day  to  their  education  ?  These 
well-spent  hours,  like  drops  of  oil  spreading 
on  the  waters,  would  diffuse  themselves  in  bless- 
ings and  pleasure  over  all  the  day.  Our  is- 
land has  one  Miss  Nightingale  and  one  Miss 
Marsh,  and  others  of  kindred  spirit  though 
less  known  to  fame ;  it  might  have  thousands 
from  their  modest  shades  filling  the  land  with 
music,  and  winning  for  their  names  the  honor 
of  household  words  in  the  abodes  of  woe  and 
wretchedness.  If  these  ladies,  by  God's  bless- 
ing, have  subdued  and  softened  man  in  his 
roughest  state,  what  might  others  accomplish 
with  plastic  childhood  in  gentle  hands  ? 

I  address  myself  once  more  to  the  public — 
to  people  with  heads  to  understand  and  hearts 
to  feel.  We  went  to  the  Government  for  aid  ; 
and  notwithstanding  the  sympathy  of  the  min- 


PLEAS   FOR   llAGGEJ)    SCHOOLS.  211 

isters  of  state,  somehow  or  other,  by  the  inter- 
ference probably  of  officials,  it  was  like  going 
down  to  Egypt  for  help.  We  have  leaned  up- 
on a  broken  reed.  The  public  purse  whicli 
supples  an  affluent  stream  to  those  schools  that 
educate  the  children  of  the  reputable  and  well- 
doing part  of  tlie  community,  strange  to  say, 
yields  to  our  Ragged  Schools  nothing  but  the 
merest  dribble.  Those  that  should  be  first  are 
put  last,  and  the  last  are  first.  While  the  child 
of  the  artisan,  the  shopkeeper,  the  manufac- 
turer, the  merchant,  is,  to  a  considerable  extent, 
educated  from  the  public  funds  of  the  country, 
this  wretched  creature,  with  pinching  hunger 
in  its  face,  foul  rags  on  its  back,  its  naked,  red, 
ulcerated  feet  on  the  icy  street,  and  in  the 
damp  cellar  or  cold  garret  where  it  lives,  nei- 
ther bed  nor  Bible,  comfort  nor  kindness,  gets 
nothing  from  our  public  funds  V)ut  a  niggardly 
pittance.  It  is  cruel  injustice.  Talk  of  class 
legislation  !  What  class  legislation  so  bad  as 
this  ?  For  a  l)rief  period,  in  answer  to  impor- 
tunity like  the  widow's,  we  got  fifty  sliillings 
a  year  for  ^very  child  of  the  abandoned  classes 


212  SEED-TIME   AND    HARVEST;   OB, 

trained  within  our  school — only  one  third  of 
the  cost.  But  now,  and  all  in  a  day,  this  fifty 
shillings  has  been  reduced  to  five.  Five  shil- 
lings in  the  year  comes  to  about  half  a  farthing 
in  the  day  ;  and  so  half  a  farthing  a  day  is 
the  encouragement  and  help  we  get  toward 
saving  a  hapless,  helpless  creature  from  crime, 
the  prison,  the  hangman.  Munificent  donation  ! 
Incredible  mockery  as  this  seems,  such  is  the 
fact.  I  am  not  aware  that  there  is  anything 
to  match  it  in  any  department  of  public  affairs. 
Its  injustice  and  folly  are  still  more  plainly 
brought  out  by  the  contrast  between  the  liber- 
ality shown  to  those  institutions  which  attempt 
to  reform  the  child  who  has  committed  crime, 
and  the  niggardliness  dealt  out  to  such  insti- 
tutions as  ours,  that  reckoning  prevention  bet- 
ter than  cure,  seek  to  destroy  crime  in  the  very 
bud.  As  if  cure  were  better  than  preven- 
tion ;  as  if  physic  w  ere  better  than  food  ;  as 
if  it  were  an  advantage  to  a  boy  or  a  girl 
to  bear  the  jail  brand  ;  as  if  the  prison  were 
an  admirable  school  of  spotless  virtue,  true 
honor,  honest  industry,  and  Christian  piety, 


PLEAS  FOR  R ACHED  SCHOOLS.     213 

tliey  allow  seven  or  eight  shillings  a  week  for 
every  child  whom  the  public  leaves  to  grow  up 
into  a  criminal,  and  to  find  its  way  into  a  pris- 
on. To  the  man  who,  like  a  fool,  postpones 
education  till  the  child  falls  into  crime,  and  is 
brought  out  of  the  jail  to  school,  the  Govern- 
ment gives  one  shilling  per  day  ;  and  to  the 
far  wiser  man  who,  catching  the  child,  so  to 
speak,  on  its  way  to  the  prison,  by  education 
destroys  crime  in  the  bud  and  germ,  the  Gov- 
ernment grants  but  one  half-farthing  per  day. 
What  a  monstrous  state  of  matters !  It  is 
high  time  that  it  were  put  an  end  to.  We  hope 
that  the  heads  of  Government  will  see  to  it — 
and  that  the  country  will  instruct  its  repre- 
sentatives to  see  to  it ! 

We  have  sinned  in  time  past  against  these 
children,  punishing  innocence  ;  and  in  worth- 
less, wicked  parents  we  have  allowed  guilt  go 
free.  We  have  punished  those  whom  we  should 
have  pitied  )  and  committed  those  to  prison 
whom  we  should  have  sent  to  school.  I  hold 
it  to  be  a  primary  duty  of  the  State  to  see  that 
every  child  within  its  bounds  is  educated,  and 


214  SEED-TIME    AND    HARVEST  ;    OR, 

that  none  be  allowed  to  bring  up  their  chil- 
dren in  savage,  dangerous  ignorance.  If  pa- 
rents are  willing  but  not  able  to  educate  them, 
let  that  be  done  at  the  public  expense.  If  they 
are  able  but  not  willing,  let  the  law  compel 
tliem  to  do  their  duty.  No  man  is  at  liberty 
in  this  land  to  starve  his  child's  body,  and  the 
interests  of  society  imperatively  require  that 
he  should  not  be  left  at  liberty  to  starve  its 
mind,  and  bring  up  his  family  so  as  to  make 
them  a  burden,  a  danger,  and  a  curse  to  th« 
community.  It  is  a  great  wrong  to  leave  a 
child  uneducated,  and  a  still  greater  wrong  to 
punish  it  for  crimes  which  are  not  its  guilt  but 
ours — the  infallible  consequence  of  our  crim- 
inal neglect. 

Tlie  day  was  when  they  shut  up  such  chil- 
dren in  prison  with  hardened  ruffians,  or  im- 
mured them  in  lonely  cells  to  pine  away  the 
sweet  spring-time  of  life  where  they  heard  no 
birds  sing,  nor  saw  the  Ijlue  sky,  nor  the  bless- 
ed sunshine.  In  the  last  century  they  did 
worse.  From  the  grim  door  of  a  prison  they 
brought  out  two  children  to  the  scaffold — a 


PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS.     215 

boy  of  twelve,  and  a  girl  of  eleven  years  of 
age.  Pitiful  sight !  two  shivering  creatures, 
beneath  the  black  gallows,  and  the  hoary  exe- 
cutioner putting  aside  their  flowing  locks,  and 
])aring  their  young  necks  for  the  rope.  Call- 
ing it  justice,  they  hanged  those  infants  up  be- 
fore the  astonished  sun !  This  shocking  murder 
was  done  in  England  in  the  reign  of  George 
II.  That  was  the  old  system  :  ours  is  the  new. 
Our  motto,  "  Prevention  is  better  than  cure," 
and  vastly  better  than  punishment. 

We  gladly  hail  the  dawn  of  a  day,  when 
trusting  more  to  schools  and  less  to  prisons,  the 
otate  shall  recognize  its  duty  in  this  matter. 
Tiiree  hundred  years  ago,  John  Knox,  our 
great  Scottish  Reformer,  long  one  of  the  most 
misunderstood  and  best  abused  of  men,  laid  it 
down  as  the  duty  of  the  Government  to  take 
care  that  every  child  withiji  its  bounds  received 
a  useful  education  :  and  one  of  England's  most 
liberal-minded  and  profoundest  thinkers  has 
lent  his  high  name  to  the  same  principle.  John 
Foster  advocates  notpnly  "  friendly  but  rngfid 
dealing  with  all  the  people  of  inferior  condi 


216  SEED-TDfE    AND    HARVEST. 

tion  relatively  to  the  necessity  of  their  practical 
accordance  to  plans  of  education."  He  treats 
"  with  contempt  any  hypocritical  protest  against 
so  much  interference  with  the  discretion,  the 
liberty  of  parents — the  discretion,  the  liberty, 
forsooth,  of  bringing  up  their  children  a  nui- 
sance on  the  face  of  the  earth." 

Meanwhile,  however,  and  until  the  happy 
day  when,  without  encroaching  on  the  domain 
of  conscience,  the  State  shall  secure  for  every 
child  within  its  borders  a  useful  education, 
Ragged  Schools  offer  the  only  remedy  for  most 
claimant  evils.  Without  them  thousands  are 
doomed  to  perish.  They  were  an  experiment ; 
they  are  a  success — a  glorious  success.  May 
they  never  cease  to  flourish,  till  these  lines 
cease  to  apply  to  this  great,  but  guilty  land  : — 

"ITie  land  has  groaned  beneath  the  guilt  of  blood 
Spilt  wantonly ;  for  every  death-doomed  man 
Who,  in  his  boyhood,  has  been  left  untaught 
That  Wisdom's  w^ys  are  ways  of  pleasantness, 
And  all  her  path?  are  peace,  unjustly  dies. 
But  ah  1  how  many  are  thus  left  untaught  I " 


APPENDIX 

No.  I. 

SUPPLEMENT  TO  FIRST  PLEA. 

rpHE  "Plea"  fell  much  like  a  small  spark 
1  among  combustibles,  calling  forth  a  very 
general  and  lively  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the 
outcast  children  of  society.  For  some  time 
after  its  first  publication,  every  day  brought 
letters  expressing  sympathy  and  offering  coop- 
eration. The  public  were  impatient  for  the 
organization  of  a  scheme,  and  a  public  meeting 
at  which  it  might  be  launched.  Such  a  meet- 
ing, patronized  by  gentlemen  of  all  ranks  and 
denominations,  was  at  length  hehl.  Our 
scheme  was  launched  amid  the  plaudits  of  a 
concourse  of  spectators ;  and  while  many 
watched  its  progress  and  followed  it  with 
their  prayers,  off  it  went  to  save  the  castaways, 
tp  (217) 


218     PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 

We  constructed  our  scheme  after  the  model  of 
those  in  Aberdeen  and  Dundee.  These  had 
been  in  all  respects  universally  approved  of ; 
and  it  was  unanimously  carried,  without  a 
murmur  of  disapprobation,  far  less  one  dis- 
senting voice,  that  our  School  should  be,  in 
the  main,  modelled  after  their  fashion  of  these. 
This  accordingly  was  done  ;  and  in  Appendix 
II.,  the  reader  will  find  the  Rules  and  Consti- 
tution of  our  Edinburgh  School,  as  proposed 
by  the  Committee,  and  unanimously  adopted 
by  a  large  meeting  of  the  citizens.  For  some 
short  while  matters  went  smoothly  enough. 
There  was  confidence  within  our  Committee, 
and  no  cloud  without.  And  the  happy,  I  will 
say  the  holy,  spectacle  was  seen  of  men  who 
had  been  at  war  now  cultivating  the  arts  of 
peace,  forgetting  differences  in  a  common  ob- 
ject, and  meeting  with  swords  turned  into 
plowshares,  to  break  up  the  ground  which  had 
long  lain  fallow. 

At  first  we  did  not  attempt  much.  There 
was  great  difiiculty  found  in  procuring  suit- 
able accommodation  for  the  Schools  in  a  cen- 


APPENDIX  219 

tral  part  of  the  city.*  Besides,  tlie  objects  of 
our  charity,  being  unaccustomed  to  subordina- 
tion, had  to  be  disciplined  and  broken  in. 
There  could  not  be  a  greater  mistake,  or  a 
grosser  misrepresentation,  than  to  allege,  as 
was  done,  that  the  small  number  of  our  schol- 
ars was  owing  to  any  aversion  which  the  Ro- 
man Catholics  felt  to  participate  in  the  benefits 
of  our  School.  I  was  warned  against  sweeping 
in  an  unmanageable  number  at  first,  by  a  cir- 
cumstance which  I  heard,  when  Lord  Ashley 
took  me  to  one  of  the  Ragged  Schools  in  Lon- 
don. It  was  situated  in  Westminster,  and  had 
a  remarkable  history.  Some  time  before  it 
was  turned  to  its  present  purpose,  this  building 
had  been  used  as  a  tavern.  It  was  the  favor- 
ite rendezvous  of  the  thieves  of  that  district. 
There  they  met  to  plan,  and  from  thence  they 
issued  forth  to  execute,  their  deeds  of  crime. 
Even  then,  they  had  a  sort  of  Sabbath-school 

*  'J'his  difficulty  has  been  in  a  great  measure  removed 
through  the  kindness  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Smith  and  the  Kirk- 
eessioii  of  the  Tolbooth  parish,  who  have  in  the  meantime 
accommodated  us  with  a  large  and  commodious  achool-room 
at  Ramsay  Garden,  CastlehilL 


220     PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 

in  it ;  but  what  a  school !  The  room  was  filled 
with  the  ruffians  and  robbers  of  the  neighbor- 
hood. At  one  end  the  younger  thieyes, — those 
who  were  in  training, — pursued  the  art  of 
pocket-picking.  If  the  lesson  was  not  well- 
performed,  the  bungler  was  apprehended  and 
dragged  by  a  sham  policeman  to  the  other  end 
of  the  room.  There,  in  caricature  of  a  court 
of  justice,  sat  a  presiding  ruffian,  dressed  out 
in  the  wig,  and  gown,  and  garb  of  a  Judge,  by 
whom,  amid  all  the  formalities  of  the  law,  the 
culprit  was  tried.  In  the  course  of  this  mock 
assize,  he  was  taught  how  to  fence  and  evade — 
when  to  be  silent,  and  how  to  speak — so  as  to 
prepare  him  for  the  time  when  this  farce  should 
pass  into  a  dreadful  tragedy.  Beneath  that 
very  roof  where  unhappy  outcasts  had  been 
trained  in  wickedness  and  sin,  we  found  a 
Ragged  School  in  admirable  order — filled  with 
the  very  objects  of  such  a  charity.  Among  oth- 
ers, we  remember  two.  A  boy  was  pointed  out 
to  us,  whose  bed,  during  winter,  had  been  the 
hollow  of  the  iron  roller  in  one  of  the  parks. 
The  other  had  been  brought  to  the  school  by 


APPENDIX.  221 

one  of  the  most  notorious  thieves  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, who  implored  tliem  to  receive  tha 
child  as  the  only  means  of  saving  liim  from 
ruin  ;  adding,  when  his  strange  request  was 
granted,  and  he  looked  round  on  the  scene, 
these  touching  words,  "  Had  tliere  Ijeen  such  a 
school  as  this  when  I  was  a  boy,  I  had  not 
been  a  thief." 

In  this,  or  in  another  school,  the  circum- 
stances happened  which  were  a  warning  to  us 
against  gathering  all  at  once  a  large  number 
of  these  neglected  and  undisciplined  children. 
A  school  had  been  opened  in  another  and  very 
wild  and  wicked  part  of  London.  When  a 
considerable  number  of  boys  had  been  brought 
together,  the  teacher  ordered  them,  if  I  re- 
member aright,  to  produce  the  books  with 
which  they  had  previously  been  furnished. 
Each  of  them  put  his  hand  into  his  pocket,  and 
produced,  not  a  book,  but  a  tobacco-pipe.  He 
remonstrated.  Tliey  answered  him  with  clouds 
of  smoke.  The  upshot  was  a  row  ;  and  the 
master,  over-mastered,  was  glad  to  escape  with 
life  and  limb.  Such  an  issue  here  was  not  to 
19* 


222  PLEAS   FOR   KAGGEU    SCHOOLS. 

be  risked.  We  began  with  a  small  number ; 
and  were  gradually  filling  up,  when  symptoms 
of  that  controversy  began  to  appear  which  has 
now  ended  in  an  open  rupture. 

In  a  newspaper  of  this  city,  it  was  asserted 
by  an  anonymous  writer,  that  Roman  Catholics 
were  excluded  from  our  School.  Our  Com- 
mittee was  most  unwilling  to  waste  on  con- 
troversy tlie  time  and  attention  which  might 
be  better  employed  ;  so  we  neither  took  in 
sail,  nor  shifted  our  course,  nor  stayed  one 
moment,  to  answer  these  random  shots.  Peo- 
ple, however,  being  ready  to  suppose  that  what 
is  not  answered  is  unanswerable,  the  Commit- 
tee at  length  found  it  necessary  to  give  this 
reckless  assertion  the  answer  which  it  admitted 
and  deserved — a  distinct  denial.  At  the  very 
time  that  charge  was  made,  one  half  of  the  chil- 
dren were  the  children  of  nominally  Roman 
Catholic  parents.  Obliged  to  abandon  this 
position,  the  ground  of  attack  was  shifted  ; 
and  now  it  was  asserted  that  we  were  violating 
the  Constitution  of  the  Society,  and  conducting 
the  Schools  so  as  virtually  to  exclude  Romao 


APPENDIX.  223 

Oatliolk  cWVLen.  In  their  own  defence,  and 
in  answer  to  xh  i  charge  of  introducing  "  a  sys- 
tem of  re]ig\"»u3  tests  into  the  Schools,  and  of 
excluding,  in  Roman  Catholic  children,  the 
largest  portion  of  those  children  for  whom  the 
Schools  were  designed,"  the  Acting  Committee 
publislied  a  "  Statement,"  which,  along  with  a 
"  Minute  of  the  General  Committee,"  approving 
of  that  Statement,  will  be  found  in  the  Appen- 
dix to  this  "  Supplement."  Though  the  efforts 
of  the  Committee  were  successful  in  satisfying 
a  large  portion  of  the  public,  there  still  re- 
mained some  of  our  original  subscribers,  be- 
tween whom  and  the  Committee  there  was  an 
important,  and,  as  it  proved  to  be,  an  irrecon- 
cilable difference.  Tluese  gentlemen  requested 
the  Lord  Provost  to  call  a  meeting,  for  the 
purpose  of  having  "  it  clearly  ascertained 
whether  the  Schools  will  be  conducted  on  a 
system  which  must  necessarily  exclude  children 
of  the  Roman  Catholic,  or  any  faith  which  dif 
fers  from  that  of  Protestant  teachers."  It  was 
now  feared,  though  not  openly  proclaimed, 
that  an  attempt  would  be  made  to  exclude  the 


224     PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 

word  of  God  from  the  Ragged  School,  and 
limit  the  education  to  secuUir  instruction,  leav- 
ing the  Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic  parties 
to  manage  the  religious  interests  of  tlie  chil- 
dren as  they  best  miglit.  The  question  whether 
the  Committee  had  acted  honestly  and  fairly 
on  the  regulations  approved  of  at  the  first  pub- 
lic meeting,  now  sunk  into  comparative  insig- 
nificance. It  was  swallowed  up  in  the  larger 
and  far  more  important  question,  Shall  the 
candle  of  Divine  truth  shine  in  these  Schools, 
or  not  ?  Shall  God's  saving  Word  be  taught 
to  these  unhappy  outcasts,  or  not  ?  The  bat- 
tle which  had  begun  in  Aberdeen  and  Dun- 
dee had  now  extended  to  the  capital ;  and  the 
jmblic  meeting  which  had  been  called  by  the 
Lord  Provost  was,  more  than  any  meeting 
which  had  been  for  a  long  time  held  in  Edin- 
burgh, looked  forward  to  with  the  liveliest 
interest  by  the  warmest  friends  of  Bible  truth, 
and  the  wisest  friends  of  these  unhappy  chil- 
dren. An  attempt  was  made  by  some  parties 
to  represent  the  Committee  as  the  enemies  of 
religious  toleration.     Large  bills  covered  the 


APPENDIX.  225 

walls  of  our  city,  summoning  the  friends  of 
toleration  to  rally  in  the  Music  Hall,  to  coun- 
teract our  sectarian  proceedings.  This  attempt 
to  pack  the  meeting  met  with  a  signal  failure. 
The  Music  Hall  was  crowded,  but  not  with  the 
parties  whom  this  bill  was  meant  to  call  out. 
Whether  they  were  ashamed  of  it  or  not,  we 
do  not  know — but,  with  the  exception  of  a 
very  small  portion  of  the  audience,  that  im- 
mense and  influential  assembly,  embracing  Epis- 
copalians, Presbyterians  and  Independents,  ex- 
pressed its  entire  and  hearty  approval  of  the 
step  which  the  Committee  had  taken,  in  re- 
solving that  the  Word  of  God  should  be  taught 
during  the  ordinary  school  hours,  and  that  true 
religion  should  form  an  essential  part  of  edu- 
cation. Edinburgh  never  uttered  its  voice 
more  distinctly  or  more  decidedly  on  any  ques- 
tion, or  on  any  occasion.  We  never  went  to 
a  meeting  with  so  much  anxiety,  nor  left  one 
with  so  much  thankfulness.  It  was  a  blessed 
sight  to  see  Protestants  of  all  Evangelical  do- 
nominations,  and  those  of  them  who  but  a  few 
years  before  had  been  arrayed  against  each 


226     PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 

other  in  the  Yoluntar j  and  Non-Intrusion  con- 
troversies, now  fighting,  side  by  side  ;  rallying 
around  the  Bible  with  the  kindness  of  bretliren, 
and  the  keenness  of  men  in  earnest. 

Holding  it  to  be  the  very  principle  of  Prot 
estantism  that  every  man  should  be  free  to 
judge  in  matters  of  religion,  uninfluenced  either 
by  fear  or  favor,  we  would  tamper  with  no 
man's  conscience.  By  the  bread  of  a  Ragged 
School,  to  bribe  a  person  to  abandon  his  faith, 
is  in  principle  as  bad  as  it  would  be  to  revive 
the  fires  and  tortures  of  the  Inquisition.  We 
abhor  the  use  of  all  such  means ;  but  we  as 
much  abhor  the  claim  which  Romish  priests  or 
their  tools  make  to  limit  the  free,  full,  and  un- 
restricted use  of  God's  revealed  Word.  Im- 
aged by  the  sun  of  heaven,  the  Bible  is  com- 
mon to  all,  needed  by  all,  and  the  right  of  all. 
He  violates  as  much  my  spiritual  rights,  who 
stands  between  me  and  the  Word  of  God,  as  he 
does  my  natural,  who  stands  between  me  and 
the  light  of  day  :  and  certainly  the  greatest 
favor  which  the  Roman  Catholic  priests  could 
confer  on  those  to  whom  they  offer  their  ser 


APPENDIX.  227 

vi?es,  would  be  to  do  for  them  what  the  philos- 
opher in  his  tub  requested  might  be  done  for 
him  by  Alexander  the  Great — "  Stand  out," 
said  Diogenes,  "between  me  and  the  sun." 

The  ground  we  took  up  may  be  stated  in  a 
single  sentence.  Considering  the  condition  of 
the  children,  and  the  cliaracter  of  the  parents, 
who  are  living  without  the  fear  either  of  God 
or  man,  and  do  not  even  make  a  profession  of 
religion,  the  principles  which  might  rule  a  na- 
tional system  of  education  do  not  apply  here. 
Here  the  question  cannot  even  be  entertained, 
whether  the  religious  instruction  might  not  be 
safely  left  to  the  parents.  Those  for  whom 
these  schools  are  established  are  untaught,  un- 
cared-for, helpless  outcasts.  As  to  the  state 
of  their  parents,  that  may  be  well  illustrated 
by  this  fact.  In  a  mixed  population  of  nominal 
Roman  Catholics  and  Protestants,  out  of  tlie 
first  two  hundred  and  fifty  individuals  in  the 
Old  Greyfriars'  parish  whom  we  visited  on  first 
coming  to  Edinburg)i,  there  were  not  more 
than  five  who  ever  darkened  the  door  of  church 
or  chapel.     To  the  children  of  families,  there- 


228     PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 

fore,  which  are  to  all  intents  and  purposes 
heathen,  we  are  bound  to  act  as  if  they  were 
heathen  children.  One  of  the  first  things  we 
have  to  do,  as  the  best  for  their  well-being  both 
in  this  life  and  in  the  life  to  come,  is  to  teach 
them  the  way  of  salvation  through  Jesus  Christ. 
Their  souls,  not  less  than  their  bodies,  are  cast 
upon  our  care  ;  and  in  such  a  case  we  dare  not 
and  cannot  plead  the  excuse  of  Cain, — "  Am  I 
my  brother's  keeper  ?"  If,  however,  it  should 
liappen  that  some  decent  Roman  Catholic  par- 
ents found  it  necessary  to  send  their  children 
to  our  Ragged  School,  the  Committee,  as  will 
be  seen  from  one  of  their  regulations,  were 
willing  to  commit  them  to  their  parents'  charge 
upon  the  Sabbath  day.  Beyond  this  they  could 
not  go.  They  could  not  yield  to  a  Roman 
Catholic  priest  the  right  of  withholding  from 
any  child  of  Adam  the  Word  of  God.  It  is  a 
matter  of  thankfulness  to  find,  that  in  the  reso- 
lution which  we  have  adopted,  and  the  position 
which  we  have  taken  up, -we  have  met  with  so 
much  Christian  sympathy  ;  and  I  cannot  afi*ord 
a  bettor  example  of  this,  nor,  perliaps,  more 


APPENDIX.  229 

effectively  close  this  Supplement,  than  by  sub- 
mitting to  the  public  the  following  letter,  which 
I  had  the  honor  to  receive  from  the  Duke  of 
Argyll  :— 

"RosENEATH,  July  8th. 

"  Rev.  Sir, — I  beg  to  be  allowed  to  have  my 
name  placed  on  the  list  of  Subscribers  to  the 
Ragged  School  which  you  have  had  such  a 
principal  share  in  founding,  and  the  manage- 
ment of  which,  as  regards  the  subject  of  relig- 
ious instruction,  you  have  so  ably,  and,  I  think, 
so  triumphantly  defended. 

"  I  must  apologize  for  the  smallness  of  a  con- 
tribution which,  but  for  the  urgent  claims  of  a 
large  and  necessitous  population,  would  have 
been  somewhat  more  commensurate  with  my 
sense  of  the  value  and  importance  of  the  object. 

"  I  cannot  allow  this  opportunity  to  pass 
without  expressing  my  humble  but  entire  ap- 
proval of  the  course  which  the  Committee  lias 
pursued  on  the  point  above  referred  to.  Be- 
tween all  those  bodies  which  are  commonly 
included  under  the  term  Protestant  commun- 
ions, there  is  so  largo  a  common  ground,  thai 
20 


230  PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED   SCHOOLS. 

there  ought  to  be  no  difficulty  whatever  in 
teaching  effectively,  and  with  purpose,  yet 
without  sectarian  bias,  the  doctrines  and  pre- 
cepts of  ChristiaD  truth.  But  the  differences 
between  them  and  the  Roman  Church  are  so 
numerous,  pervading,  and  important,  that  tlie 
teaching  which  avoids  them  all  must,  I  think, 
be  formal,  vague,  and  pointless.  The  nearest 
approach  to  anything  which  can  be  called  re- 
ligious teaching,  compatible  with  such  a  sys- 
tem, is  probably  that  contemplated  by  the  Irish 
national  scheme,  in  which  readings  are  selected 
from  the  Bible.  This  has  been  supported  by 
many  excellent  and  able  men.  Not  having  any 
abstract  objection,  as  some' have,  to  the  princi- 
ple of  selections,  but  thinking  that  everything 
depends  on  how  large  and  ample  such  selec- 
tions are,  I  should  be  sorry  to  say  a  word 
against  a  scheme  which  may  be  the  best  or  the 
only  one  possible  in  the  peculiar  circumstances 
of  that  country.  But  certainly  I  hold  that 
such  a  scheme,  as  applied  to  the  '  ragged '  chil- 
dren of  our  great  towns,  would  sacrifice  a  very 
large  amount  of  positive  and  practical  good 


APPENDIX.  231 

for  the  attainment  of  very  small  and  very 
doubtful  benefits.  Where  it  can  be  reasonably 
expected  that  children,  in  addition  to  such 
(comparatively  meagre)  readings,  will  receive 
more  positive  instruction  from  parents,  or 
guardians,  or  others  interested  in  their  welfare, 
the  plan  may  not  in  itself  be  objectionable : 
Protestants  will  then  not  lose  by  the  omissions 
—Romanists  may  l)e  allowed  their  benefit. 
But  where  no  such  expectation  can  reasonably 
be  formed,  the  Protestants  mnst  lose  much,  and 
may  lose  all  that  is  positive  in  religion  ;  whilst 
the  Romanists  will  be  in  danger  of  being  bound 
to  their  own  communion  only  by  its  grosser 
ties— by  its  observances,  its  priesthood,  or  its 
absolutions— and  lose  all  those  deeper  influ- 
ences which  have  raised,  and  doubtless  are  rais- 
ing, in  the  Roman  church,  as  earnest,  as  de- 
voted, and  as  spiritually-minded  Christians  as 
the  best  who  have  believed  in  purer  creeds. 

"On  these  grounds,  as  well  as  on  others 
which  I  cannot  now  refer  to,  I  conceive  such  a 
plan  to  be  essentially  bad  as  applied  to  Ragged 
Schools  :  and  as  the  Committee  seems  to  me  to 


232     PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 

have  been  unjustly  assailed,  I  think  it  the  duty 
of  those  who  approve  of  your  course  in  thia 
respect  to  come  forward  now  in  its  support. 
"I  am,  Rev.  Sir,  yours  faithfully, 

Argyll." 
"The  Rev.  Thomas  Guthrie." 


No.  n. 

CONSTITUTION  AND  RULES  of  the  Asso- 

CIATION   FOR  THE  ESTABLISHMENT    OF  RaGGED 

Industrial   Schools   for  Destitute  Chil- 
dren IN  Edinburgh. 

1.  It  is  the  object  of  this  Association  to  re- 
claim the  neglected  and  destitute  children  of 
Edinburgh,  by  affording  them  the  benefits  of 
a  good  common  and  Christian  Education,  and 
by  training  them  to  habits  of  regular  industry, 
so  as  to  enable  them  to  earn  an  honest  liveli- 
hood, and  fit  them  for  the  duties  of  life. 

2.  With  this  view  the  Association  shall  es- 
tablish and  maintain  one  or  more  schools  for 
such  children,  in  such  parts  of  the  city  or  sub- 
urbs as  may  be  found  most  advisable. 


APPENDIX.  2'5'i 

3.  The  following  classes  of  cliildren  shall  ])e 
excluded  : — 1st,  Those  who  are  already  r(\irn- 
larly  attending  Day-Schools  ; — 2d,  Those  wliosc 
parents  are  earning  a  regular  income,  and  ahle 
to  procure  education  for  their  children  ; — lid, 
Those  who  are  receiving,  or  entitled  to  receive, 
support  and  education  from  the  Parochial 
Boards  ;-^with  this  declaration,  that  it  shall 
be  in  the  power  of  the  Acting  Committee  to 
deal  with  special  cases,  although  falling  under 
any  of  these  classes,  having  regard  always  to 
the  special  objects  of  the  Association. 

4.  The  Association  shall  consist  of  all  Sub- 
scribers of  Ten.  Shillings  per  annum  and  up- 
wards, and  of  all  Donors  of  Five  Pounds  and 
upwards. 

5.  It  shall  be  governed  by  a  General  Com- 
mittee, consisting  of  fifty  Members  (fifteen  being 
a  quorum),  and  an  Acting  Committee,  consist- 
ing of  twenty-five  Members  (five  being  a  quo- 
rum), with  a  Secretary  and  Treasurer.  The 
Acting  Committee  shall  be  entitled  to  be  pres- 
ent and  vote  at  all  Meetings  of  the  General 
Committee. 

20* 


234     PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 

6.  A  Meeting  of  the  Association  shall  be 
held  annually,  in  April,  when  a  Report  of  the 
proceedings  shall  be  read,  and  the  Committees 
and  Office-Bearers  elected  for  the  ensuing  year. 
The  Acting  Committee  shall  meet  at  least  once 
every  month. 

7.  The  Acting  Committee  shall  have  power 
to  elect  the  Office-Bearers,  to  appoint  Local 
Committees,  and  to  make  laws  and  regulations 
to  be  observed  in  conducting  the  business  of 
the  Association  ;  and  all  Schools  to  be  estab- 
lished by  the  Association  shall  be  subject  to 
such  laws  and  regulations  ;  but  no  school  shall 
be  established  without  the  consent  of  the  Gen- 
eral Committee. 

8.  The  appointment  of  Teachers,  and  other 
officers,  shall  be  made  by  the  Acting  Com- 
mittee. 

9.  The  general  plan  upon  which  the  Schools 
Bhall  be  conducted  shall  be  as  follows,  viz. — 

To  give  the  children  an  allowance  of 
food  for  their  daily  support. 

To  instruct  them  in  reading,  writing, 
and  arithmetic. 


APPENDIX.  23r) 

To  train  them  in  liabits  of  industry,  h\ 
instructing  and  employing  them  daily 
in  such  sorts  of  work  as  are  suited 
to  their  years. 

To  teach  them  the  truths  of  the  gospel, 
making  the  Holy  Scriptures  the 
groundwork  of  instruction. 

On  Sabbath  the  children  shall  receive 
food  as  on  other  days,  and  such  relig- 
ious instruction  as  shall  be  arranged 
by  the  Acting  Committee. 

No.  m. 

STATEMENT  .^y  the  Acting  Committee  of  the 
Association  for  Establishing  Ragged  or 
Industrial  Schools. 

The  Committee  liaving  tlieir  attention 
called  to  certain  articles  and  letters  in  a  re- 
spectable newspaper  in  this  city,  of  a  nature  fit- 
ted to  cause  misconception  and  distrust  in  the 
mind  of  the  public  on  the  suiiject  of  religious 
teaching  in  their  schools,  tliink  it  necessary  tc 
publish  tlie  folic  wing  statement : — 


236      PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 

By  the  Constitution  and  Rules  of  the  Associ- 
ation it  is  declared,  that  "  It  is  the  object  of 
this  Association  to  reclaim  the  neglected  or 
profligate  children  of  Edinburgh,  by  affording 
them  the  benefits  of  a  good  common  and  Chris- 
tian education,  and  by  training  them  to  habits 
of  regular  industry,  so  as  to  enable  them  to 
earn  an  honest  livelihood,  and  fit  them  for  tlie 
duties  of  life  ;"  and,  in  regard  to  the  general 
plan  upon  which  the  schools  are  to  be  con- 
ducted, it  is  declared  tliat  the  children  shall  be 
taught  "  the  truths  of  the  gospel,  making  the 
Holy  Scriptures  the  groundwork  of  instruc- 
tion ; "  and  that  "  on  Sabbath  the  children  shall 
receive  food  as  on  other  days,  and  such  religious 
instruction  as  shall  be  arranged  by  the  Acting 
Committee." 

The  Constitution  and  Rules,  from  which 
these  quotations  are  taken,  were  fully  discussed 
at  a  large  meeting,  in  the  Council  Chambers, 
of  the  Preliminary  Committee  appointed  by 
the  Lord  Provost,  and  approved  (?f  by  them. 
They  were  thereafter  submitted  to  the  public 
meeting  in  the  Music  Hall,  and  received  the 


APPENDIX.  237 

unanimous  approval  of  tliat  meeting  ;  ami  the 
general  plan  of  the  schools  has  been  kept  prom- 
inently in  the  view  (if  tlie  public  in  all  the 
statements  and  appeals  issued  bj  the  Commit- 
tee with  a  view  to  obtaining  contributions  for 
the  schools.  From  the  large  amount  of  sub- 
scriptions that  have  already  been  received,  the 
Committee  are  happy  to  think  that  the  princi- 
ples of  the  Association  have  met  with  the  gen- 
eral confidence  of  the  public. 

These  principles  have  been,  and  will  continue 
to  be,  faithfully  adhered  to  in  the  management 
of  the  schools.  The  religious  instruction  con- 
veyed at  these  schools  must  necessarily  be  of 
the  most  simple  and  elementary  kind,  so  as  to 
be  adai)ted  to  tlie  tender  years  and  gross  igno- 
rance of  the  children.  Its  entire  freedom  from 
all  sectarian  bias  is  effectually  secured  by  the 
superintendence  of  a  Committee  impartially 
selected  from  the  various  religious  bodies  com- 
posing the  great  bulk  of  tlie  coinmunity.  The 
only  books  hitherto  used  in  the  school  iiave 
been  the  Bible  and  the  First  and  Second  Books 
of  Education,  published  under  the  superintend 


238  PLEAS    FOIJ    RAGGED    SCHOOLS. 

ence  of  the  Commissioners  of  National  Edu- 
cation in  Ireland.  The  Committee  feel  that 
tliey  cannot  hope  for  a  blessing  on  their  schools 
if  religion  is  not  the  pervading  principle  of  the 
instruction  given  to  the  children. 

The  instruction  on  the  Lord^s  day  is  con- 
ducted on  like  principles  as  on  week-days, 
though,  of  course,  it  bears  a  more  purely  relig- 
ious character.  In  order  to  meet  the  case  of 
those  parents  who  may  have  conscientious  ob- 
jections to  their  children  receiving  the  more 
special  religious  instruction  communicated  on 
Sabbath,  or  attending  public  worship  with  the 
teacher,  provision  is  made  that  such  parents, 
provided  they  ai*e  in  a  condition  to  be  entrusted 
with  the  care  of  their  children,  shall  be  allowed 
to  withdraw  them  for  the  purpose  of  attending 
their  own  place  of  worship,  of  whatever  de- 
nomination. 

The  Committee  feel  assured  that  this  explan- 
atory statement  will  be  sufficie:^  to  satisfy  the 
public  that  the  accusations  brought  against 
them,  of  introducing  a  "  system  of  religious 
tests"  into  the  schools,  and  of  *'  excluding  the 


APPENDIX.  2:V.« 

largest  portion  of  those  children  for  whom  the 
schools  were  designed,"  are  entirely  without 
foundation. 

It  must  be  obvious  that  an  institution  of  this 
kind,  intended  to  provide  a  home,  food,  moral 
and  industrial  training,  as  well  as  the  ordinary 
branches  of  scholarship,  for  children  other- 
wise utterly  destitute  of  all  these,  is  l)y  no 
means  on  the  same  footing  with  ordinary  day 
schools,  in  which  applicants  may  select  the 
branches  they  may  wish  to  attend;  and  can- 
not, therefore,  be  judged  of  on  the  same  i)i'in- 
ciples.  The  Committee  view  themselves  as  not 
in  the  position  of  mere  ordinary  instructors, 
but  as  coming,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases, 
in  the  place  of  parents,  with  regard  to  the 
temporal  as  well  as  spiritual  interests  of  the 
children.  As  parents,  they  cannot  throw  off 
the  responsibility  attaching  to  them  of  enlight- 
ening the  minds  of  the  children  ;  and,  in  so 
doing,  they  cannot  but  give  them  that  instruc- 
tion which  is  best  calculated  to  reclaim  lli'" 
children  from  the  miserable  condition  in  which 
thev  are  found.     It  would  be  utterly  ruinous 


240  PLEAS   POTl    RAOrrED   SCHOOLS. 

to  the  plan,  and  defeat  all  its  benevolent  pur- 
poses, especially  considering  the  criminal  and 
vagrant  habits  of  the  children  who  are  to  be 
benefited  by  it,  if  any  other  system  were  adopt- 
ed than  that  of  subjecting  them  all  to  the  en- 
tire moral  and  religious  discipline — simply 
based  upon  the  Word  of  God — which  it  pur- 
poses to  bring  to  bear  upon  them. 

It  may  be  added,  that  although  it  has  been 
alleged  that  those  principles  of  this  Association 
which  are  now  attacked  are  peculiar  to  it,  the 
Committee  do  not  know  of  any  institution  of 
the  kind  now  in  existence  in  Scotland  which 
is  not  founded  on  the  very  same  principles. 

The  Committee  conclude  with  expressing 
their  unanimous  and  earnest  desire  to  follow 
out  thoroughly  the  sound  principles  on  which 
the  Association  is  founded.  They  ask  to  be 
nidged  by  what  they  are  now  doing  ;  and  to 
be  believed  when  they  state,  in  the  strongest 
manner,  their  anxious  wish  to  avoid  sectarian- 
ism, and  to  pursue  their  work  earnestly  and 
cheei-fully  in  the  spirit  of  their  Divine  Master, 
who  went  about  doing  good.     They  request 


APPENDIX.  241 

the  public  to  visit  the  soliools,  and  to  judge  for 
themselves  whether  they  are  efficiently  and 
properly  conducted. 

By  appointment  of  the  Acting  Committee, 

And.  Jameson,  Convener, 
Edinburgh,  14th  June,  1847. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  General  Committee  of  the 
Association  for  Establishing  Ragged  or  In- 
dustrial Schools  in  Edinburgh,  held  in  No. 
6  York  Place,  on  18th  June,  1847, 

The  Lord  Provost  in  the  Chair, 

The  following  resolutions  were  moved  by 
James  Craufurd,  Esq.,  Advocate,  seconded  by 
Dr.  W.  P.  Alison,  and  agreed  to  : — 

That  this  meeting  approve  of  the  "  State- 
ment of  the  Acting  Committee ; "  but  since 
it  appears  that  some  misapprehension  prevails 
in  regard  to  the  principles  on  which  the  schools 
are  conducted, 

Be-fiolved,  1st,  That  the  General  Committee 
emphatically  disclaim  all  intention  of  using 


242     PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 

the  advantages  held  out  bj  these  schools  as  a 
means  of  tempting  Roman  Catholics  to  the 
abandonment  or  compromise  of  opinions  which 
they  conscientiously  entertain.  The  reclaiming 
of  children  from  ignorance  and  crime,  not  their 
conversion  from  Romanism,  is  the  aim  of  the 
Committee  and  the  object  of  the  schools  ;  and 
the  Committee  rejoice  to  know  that,  both  m 
Aberdeen,  and  hitherto  in  Edinburgh,  the  chil- 
dren of  Roman  Catholic  parents  have  attended 
the  schools  without  any  objection  being  made. 

2d,  That  no  catechism,  or  other  formula  of 
doctrine,  is  or  shall  be  taught  to  any  child 
whose  parents  object  to  it. 

3d,  That  children  are  and  shall  be  excused 
from  attendance  at  school,  or  at  worship,  on 
the  Sabbath  day,  whose  parents  object  to  their 
attendance,  and  undertake  that  the  children  are 
otherwise  religiously  instructed,  according  to 
the  tenets  of  the  communion  to  which  they  be- 
long, provided  they  are  in  a  condition  to  be 
entrusted  with  the  care  of  their  children. 


APPENDIX.  243 


No.  IV. 


The  childrci  are  at  school  twelve  hours  each 
day  in  summer,  and  eleven  in  winter.  At  pres- 
ent they  meet  in  tlie  morning  at  eight,  and  p:o 
away  in  the  evening  shortly  after  seven  o'clock. 
The  eleven  hours  are  disposed  of  as  follows : — 

Meals  and 

I'lay.  Lt'ssous.  Work 


From  8    to 

8^,  Ablutions      - 

h 

u 

"     8|to 

9i,  All  Working 

11 

ii 

"     9^0  lOj,  Breakfast  and  Play 

f 

li 

"  lOi  to  11,    Calling  RoU  and  Bible  [ 

a 

f 

Lesson       -        -    J 

«  11    to 

1,    One-half   in   school-  ) 

room,     and    other  " 

a 

1 

half  in  work-room  -' 

"     1    to 

2,    All  walking  - 

i 

li 

«    2    to 

2.\,  Dinner  -         -         - 

h 

ti 

"     2Ho 

3,    All  in  school-room 

u 

h 

«    3    to 

5,    One-half  in   school-  ) 

room,  other  half  in  r 

u 

1 

work-room                ' 

"    5    to 

6J,  All  working  - 

u 

u 

"     6i  to   7i,  Supper  and  closing 

1 

(( 

3J      34      4J 


244     PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 

Only  one  hour  is  counted  from  eleven  to  one, 
and  from  three  to  five,  as  then  only  half  of 
the  boys  are  in  school-room  and  work-room. 

No.  Y. 

27  York  Place,  December  25th,  1848. 

My  dear  Mr.  Guthrie, — The  table  showing 
the  composition  of  the  Original  Ragged  Schools 
is  made  up  of  terrible  details.  It  affords  sub- 
ject-matter for  the  wisest  men  to  ponder,  con- 
stituting, as  it  does,  an  analysis  of  a  sample 
only  of  the  largest  and  sorest  evil  which  afflicts 
the  body  social  of  this  country. 

One  item,  not  included  in  the  table,  might 
appear  to  many  to  be  a  strange  one.  Thirty 
per  cent,  of  the  children  ran  away  from  the 
Ragged  Schools,  "  and  came  back,  or  were 
brought  back,  and  then  attended."  It  may 
seem  strange  that  they  ran  away,  and  this  af- 
ter food  had  been  given  to  them,  clothing  had 
been  put  upon  them,  and  kind  treatment  had 
been  exercised  towards  them.  The  key  to  the 
explanation  o:  the  phenomenon  is  to  be  found 


APPENDIX.  245 

in  this  :  tliey  arc  callous  to  what  wc  understand 
by  hardship.  Tlicy  don't  know  lionio,  noitlicr 
do  they  know  aught  about  friendsliip.  From 
infancy  they  have  catered  for  themselves ;  they 
are  ignorant  of  what  is  expressed  by  the  word 
risk;  they  are  independent;  they  resist  the 
very  gentlest  restraint,  and  tlieir  first  impulse 
is  to  escape  from  it ;  they  liave  no  love  for 
what  they  never  experienced  ;  and  they  don't 
fear  tliat  with  which  they  are  familiar.  Hence 
the  smallest  offence  to  their  freer  than  Arab 
feelings  is  cause  enough  for  them  to  endeavor 
to  escape  from  school,  and  resume  the  more 
than  savage  life  to  wdiich  they  have  been  habit- 
uated from  their  earliest  infancy.  It  is  very 
encouraging  to  know  that  "  running  away  from 
school"  is  daily  becoming  less  frequent;  and  that 
of  those  who  run  away,  the  number  of  instan- 
ces in  w^hich  the  parents  bring  them  back  is  on 
the  increase.  Tliis,  I  think,  affords  evidence 
of  two  things  ;— first,  that  the  schools  are  gain- 
ing character  in  the  estimation  of  the  children; 
and,  secondly,  that  they  are  acting  reflexly  ou 
the  class  to  which  the  children  belong. 
21* 


246     PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 

The  title  of  the  famous  "  Plea,"  by  which  vod 
stirred  the  towns  of  Scotland,  and  of  England 
likewise,  not  excepting  the  metropolis,  has  been 
proven  to  embody  a  truth,  wherever  it  has  been 
tested  by  the  establishment  of  Ragged  Schools 
on  the  principles  so  clearly  propounded  in  the 
"  Plea,"  and  so  manfully  vindicated  when  they 
were  impugned.  "  Prevention  is  better  than 
cure  ;"  and  it  is  likewise  cheaper  than  cure.  In 
contrasting  the  cost  of  cure  with  the  cost  of 
prevention,  let  it  be  borne -in  mind  that  it  is 
the  "  ragged  "  children  who  either  are  or  be- 
come the  thieves  and  vagabonds  for  whose  de- 
tection such  an  immense  police  is  maintained 
in  thiS  country,  and  for  whose  safe  custody  such 
giga  vtic  prison  establishments  are  necessary. 
The.  ^  children  by  degrees  acquire  a  title  to 
be  transported  ;  and,  ere  they  grow  to  be  men 
and  women,  very  many  of  them  are  sent  to  join 
their  parents  and  acquaintances,  who  constitute 
the  almost  devil  population  of  Norfolk  Island. 
The  supply  of  these  "  ragged  "  children  is  very 
great ;  the  cost  of  their  maintenance  (they  live 
by  plunder)  is  enormous  ;  and  the  price  of  them 


APPENDIX.  247 

to  the  country,  when  they  arc  recognized  by 
the  law,  is  prodigious. 

Mr.  Smith,  the  admirable  Governor  of  the 
Edinburgh  Prison,  permitted  me  some  time 
since  to  study  a  set  of  tables  of  jail  statistics, 
which  he  made  two  years  ago,  and  which  are 
perhaps  the  best,  as  well  as  the  most  extensive, 
that  were  ever  constructed.  Among  other 
memoranda,  I  extracted  this  one  : — In  the  years 
1841-42-43,  the  cost  of  prisoners  committed  to 
the  Edinburgh  Jail  for  "  theft  and  reset"  was 
£11,632  6s.  The  numbers  committed  for  this 
crime  during  these  years  respectively,  were^ 
1963, 1811, 1932— in  all,  5706  ;  and  the  yearly 
average  therefore  was  1902.  Tlie  total  aver- 
age number  of  commitments  for  all  offences 
during  these  three  years  was  16,653.  Thus 
the  commitments  for  theft  amounted  to  no  less 
than  34  per  cent,  of  the  whole.  These  prisoners 
were  maintained  in  prison  at  the  rate  of  £12 
per  annum.  Now  I  am  quite  safe  in  saying, 
that  nearly  all  these  prisoners  belonged  to  the 
class  to  which  the  "  ragged  "  boy  belongs.  Is 
the  questif>A  one  of  finance?     Then  look,  dear 


248     PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 

sir,  at  the  other  side  of  the  account.  Here  I 
laust  quote  from  the  Original  Ragged  School 
Report  of  last  year.     It  is  dated  March  31, 

1848  :— 

Boys.    Girls.  Total. 

Total  number  of  children  admitted  since 


e  opening  of  the  Schools,     . 

.     310 

199 

509 

Of  whom,  born  in  Scotland, 

.     186 

82 

268 

"               in  England, 

.       11 

2 

13 

"              in  Ireland,  . 

.     113 

115 

228 

Total  as  above, 

.     310 

199 

50 

Number  above  ten  years  of  age,  .     161  118  279 

Number  under  ten  years  of  age,  .     149  81  230 

Total  as  above,     .     310  199  509 

Number  that  have  died,       .        .         9  7  16 

Number  that  have  gone  home  to 

Ireland, 3  4  7 

Number  that  have  left,  or  been  dis- 
charged as  not  fit  objects,         .119  54  173 

Number  that  have  found  employ- 
ment,      .        .         .        .        .       21  14  35 

Number  that  have  removed  to  a 

higher  class  of  Schools,     .        .        5  8  13 

Number  on  the  Roll  at  31st  March, 

1848, 153  112  205 

Total  as  above,     .     310  199  509 


•  APPENDIX.  249 

The  number  on  the  roll  at  this  date  are 

distributed  as  follows  : — 

In  the  Boys'  School,    ....      105 

In  the  Girls'  School,     ....       90 

In  the  Juvenile  School  (under  ten  years 

of  age), 70 

2G5 

Of  those  on  the  roll  at  this  date  there  are, — 

Pohce  cases,  i.  e.,  children  ascertained  to  have 
once  or  oftener  passed  through  tlie  Police 

Courts, 78 

Note. — Of  these,  18  are  under  10  y'rs  of  age. 
Children  with  both  parents  dead,  .        .        20 

Children  with  one  parent  dead,    .         .        .118 
Children  deserted  by  parents,       ...        24 
Cliildren  that  could  not  read  the  alphabet  on  enter- 
ing the  School : — 

In  the  Boys'  School, 40 

In  the  Girls'  School, 29 

And  nearly  all  in  the  Juvenile  School 
The  Report  says  that  the  current  expenses 
of  ihe  schools  amounted  to  £820  105.  ^d.  Tak- 
ing the  number  on  the  roll  (265)  at  tlie  date 
of  tlie  Report  as  a  daily  average,  and  deduct- 
ing from  it,  say  50,  as  the  daily  number  of 
absentees  from  sickness  and  other  causes,  we 
find  that  the  children  are  fed  and  educated  at 


1250  PLEAS   FOR    RAGGED  'sCHOOLS. 

the  rate  of  about  £4  per  annum.  The  financial 
view  of  the  question,  therefore,  involves  con- 
trast, and  not  comparison.  £4  are  paid  for 
the  ragged  boy ;  £12  are  paid  for  the  incar- 
cerated thief  ;*  and  the  question  is,  which  sum 
does  the  public  prefer  to  pay  ?  But  I  am  much 
below  the  mark  when  I  say  that  £12  is  the  sum 
paid  for  the  incarcerated  thief;  for  the  law 
expenditure,  a  large  per  centage  of  jail  expense, 
and  the  value  of  the  property  stolen  by  the 
thief,  are  not  included  in  the  account.  What 
these  amount  to  I  do  not  know  ;  but  this  I  am 
aware  of, — they  are  enormous,  and  the  public 
pay  for  them. 

I  have  said  that  nearly  all  the  prisoners  re- 
ferred to  belong  to  the  class  whose  cause  you 
have  adopted,  and  advocate  with  such  power. 
This  cla?s  is  hcloio  the  pauper  ;  it  is  not  pro- 
tected by  the  law.  It  is  never  noticed  by  the 
law  until  one  of  those  belonging  to  it  has  been 
murdered,  or  one  almost  equally  unfortunate 

*  The  average  cost  per  head  of  prisoners  in  all  the  prisons 
in  Scotland  is  £16  7*.  4rf.  per  annum. — Ninth  Report  of  Gtn^ 
irol  Board  of  Directors  of  Prisons  for  Scotland,  p.  121. 


APPENDIX.  251 

has  stolen  a  loaf,  impelled  by  hunger,  and  un- 
deterred by  any  moral  sense.  This  class  is 
entitled  to  be  cared  for  before  the  members  of 
it  become  criminals.  It  is  just,  it  is  politic, 
and  it  is  economic. 

I  am  unwilling  to  extend  this  letter  ;  but  the 
opportunity,  is  a  good  one  for  placing  a  few 
criminal  statistics  before  the  public,  that  bear 
upon  the  cause  which  you  advocate. 

In  the  year  1841,  at  least  240  children,  four- 
teen years  old  and  under,  were  committed  to 
prison.  These  cost  at  the  rate  of  £10  each, 
which  is  equal  to  £2400  per  annum.  Is  it  not 
better  to  endeavor  to  save  a  boy  at  the  rate  of 
£4,  than  to  harden  him  in  sin  and  crime  at  tlie 
rate  of  £10,  per  annum  ? 

Perhaps  many  of  the  readers  of  your  appeal 
may  perceive  that  the  following  memoranda, 
extracted  from  Mr.  Smith's  tables,  contain  an 
argument  in  favor  of  the  extension  of  the  Rag- 
ged School  system. 

During  the  years  1842-43-44  the  number 
of  children  under  ten  years  of  age  who  were 
committed  to  prison  amounted  to  243. 


252     PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 

During  these  three  years,  232  individuals  were 
transported  ;  64  of  these  committed  their  first 
offence  when  sixteen  years  of  age  and  under  ; 
and  it  is  remarked  of  many  of  them,  that  their 
nearest  relatives  were  often  in  prison,  and  that 
not  a  few  of  them  were  transported. 

Up  to  the  year  1846,  3152  families,  consisting 
of  3509  individuals,  had  furnished  10,706  com- 
mitments, being  on  an  average  three  commit- 
ments to  each  person. 
Of  these  families — 

193  had  sent  2  individuals  to  prison. 
28       "         3  " 

20       "        4  " 

8       "        6 
4       "        6  " 

1      "        7  " 

I  must  reiterate  the  observation,  that  the 
mass  of  the  individuals  to  whom  these  memo- 
randa refer  belonged  to  the  class  which  sup- 
plies the  Ragged  School  with  pupils. 

You,  in  common  with  other  accurate  ob- 
servers and  just  thinkers,  trace  famine,  misery, 
and  crime  to  the  dram-shops,  which  are  planted 


APPENDIX.  253 

thickly  in  all  the  populous  parts  of  our  cities, 
as  if  with  the  design  to  i-uin  men,  body  and 
soul.  With  whom  the  res})oi!sibility  of  tliis 
ruination  rests  it  is  not  for  me  to  say,  although 
I  have  an  opinion  on  the  subject. 

Tlie  statistics  of  the  Edinburgh  Jail  show 
that  fifty-four  per  cent,  of  the  offences  for  wliicli 
individuals  are  committed  to  prison  are  the 
direct  effects  of  drunkenness. 

Seventy-three  per  cent,  of  the  crimes  are 
committed  in  tlie  localities  where  sixty  per 
cent,  of  the  drinking-houses,  properly  so  called, 
are  situated,  and  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  spirit- 
licenses  are  held.  Further,  seventy-three  per 
cent,  of  the  crimes  committed  in  Edinburgh 
and  the  suburbs  are  committed  by  persons  re- 
siding in  the  localities  where  the  crimes  are 
perpetrated. 

These  are  memoranda  from  prison  statistics, 
and  they  suggest  very  gloomy  thoughts  to  tlic 
reflecting  ;  but  they  don't  tell  half  of  the  truth. 
In  a  note  by  Mr.  Smith  it  is  observed, — "  The 
number  taken  to  the  Police  Office  in  the  tin  ee 
years  ending  December,  184-3,  for  druJikenucss 


254  PLEAS  FOE  RAUGED   SCHOOLS. 

was  13,858, — a  number  equal  to  about  one-six 
teentli  of  the  population.  Probably  at  least 
two-thirds  of  all  other  cases  are  caused  indi- 
rectly by  drunkenness.  This  will  be  more  ap- 
parent when  it  is  considered  how  many  lose 
their  character  and  employment  from  drunken- 
ness, and  are  thus  turned  idle  upon  the  public, 
with  no  other  alternative  than  to  beg  or  steal, 
for  either  of  which  offences  they  are  sent  to 
prison.  Many  of  those  who  are  too  young  to 
have  become  addicted  to  the  vice,  are  the  off- 
spring of  dissipated  parents,  and  are  very  often 
left  destitute,  either  by  the  desertion  and  neg- 
lect, or  death,  of  those  whose  duty  it  was  to 
provide  for  them.  Again,  some  are  compelled 
by  dissipated  parents  to  beg  or  steal,  and  thd 
proceeds  are  expended  in  liquor."  This  note 
when  we  consider  who  wrote  it,  and  upon  what 
an  amount  of  experience  it  is  based,  is  invalu- 
able.  The  children  alluded  to  by  Mr.  Smith 
are  "  ragged  boys  and  girls." 

The  ragged  .boy  has  been  kept  prominently 
before  the  reader's  eye,  and  the  ragged  girl 
has  been  in  a  measure  concealed.     Is  there  no 


APPENDIX.  255 

pity  for  her  ?  Her  history  is  as  dismal  as  that 
of  her  brother.  I  dare  not  trace  it.  Tlie 
whole  of  it  can  be  seen  any  day  in  two  hours' 
time,  by  walking  through  the  Grassmarket, — 
looking  into  any  of  the  little  offices  of  hell 
which  are  rife  in  that  locality,  and  each  one 
of  which  is  always  thronged, — passing  up  any 
of  the  foul  closes  which  open  into  the  market, 
— entering  a  house  there,  and  glancing  over  it 
(a  glance  is  all  that  those  whose  duty  has  not 
forced  them  to  tarry  often  in  these  dens  of  in- 
famy can  give), — visiting  the  Police  Office  and 
then  the  Calton  Jail.  In  two  hours  tlieir  whole 
history  can  be  seen,  and  much  of  it  heard 
Contrast  the  power  of  a  pimpled  spirit-dealei 
with  that  of  a  missionary,  to  influence  such  a 
terrible  population  as  that  to  which  I  now 
refer.  Why,  sir,  tlie  spirit-shops  are  epidemic, 
and  more  deadly  than  the  cholera.  Eacli  one 
of  them  is  a  centre  of  contagion,  ever  in  ac- 
tivity,— of  a  contagion  which  slays  with  cer- 
tainty, recovery  from  it,  when  caught,  being 
hopeless.  Much  has  been  said  against  tlie 
"  wee  pawns."  They  are  dependont  things 
and  not  worth  speaking  against  or  about,  so 


256     PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 

long  as  that  on  whicli  their  existence  depends 
is  not  only  tolerated,  but  fostered. 

I  must  now  conclude  this  fragmentary  letter  ; 
but  before  doing  so,  I  may  allude  to  the  effect 
which  the  Ragged  Schools  have  had  upon  tlie 
health  of  the  children.  They  have  had  a 
marked  good  effect ;  and  it  is  my  belief  that 
the  rate  of  mortality  is  much  reduced  among 
them.  Precise  observations,  however,  on  this 
subject  are  very  difficult  to  make.  Imperfect 
or  false  mortality  statistics  are  worse  than 
uselass, — they  are  mischievous  ;  and  therefore 
I  refrain  from  doing  more  than  stating  what 
my  belief  is  regarding  the  effect  which  the 
Ragged  Schools  have  had  on  the  mortality  of 
the  children.  Believe  me  to  be,  my  dear  Sir, 
yours  most  sincerely,  G.  Bell. 

No.  YI. 
Rothesay,  20th  December,  1848. 
My  dear   Sir, — I  have  great  pleasure  in 
giving  my  testimony  regarding  the  operation 
of  the  Industrial  Schools  in  Edinburgh. 

For  upwards  of  five  years  it  has  been  my 
duty,  as   Sheriff  Substitute,  first  of  Ayrshire 


APPENDIX  257 

and  then  of  Edinburgh,  to  try  a  great  nunilior 
of  yoiuig  offenders  in  the  Sheriff  and  Police 
Courts.  The  great  majority  of  tliese,  at  least 
in  Edinburgh,  belonged  to  the  unhappy  class 
for  whose  benefit  the  schools  have  been  insti- 
tuted. It  was  my  practice  to  examine  into 
their  liistory  and  lial)its ;  and  I  do  not  remem- 
ber of  one  wlio,  according  to  his  own  account, 
attended  any  church.  A  few  had  at  one  time 
or  other  been  at  a  Sabbath-school,  and  received 
there  the  little  useful  knowledge  they  possessed. 
The  mass  were  the  children  of  destitute  and 
profligate  parents,  or  friendless  outcasts,  witli- 
out  any  home.  Although  living  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  ministrations  of  the  pulpit,  or  the 
instruction  of  ordinary  schools,  the  class  were 
well  known  to  the  police  of  the  large  towns, 
where  increasing  numbers  and  depravity  have 
become  one  of  our  most  formidable  social  evils. 
They  frequently  appeared  at  the  bar  of  the 
Police  Courts,  charged  with  petty  thefts,  and 
were  sentenced  repeatedly  to  short  imprison- 
ments, until  the  num])er  of  their  convictions 
entitled  them  to  appear  before  a  jury  in  tlio 
Sheriff  or   Justiciary  Court.     As   far  as  niv 


l!5^  PLEAS   FOR   RAGGED    SCHOOLS. 

experience  goes,  this  system  of  awarding  short 
imprisonments  in  the  case  of  these  young  of- 
fenders produces  none  of  the  eifects  for  which 
punishment  is  intended.  It  neither  deters  nor 
reforms.  On  the  contrary,  it  seems  only  to 
harden  the  heart  and  destroy  the  character. 
By  the  time  the  case  permits  the  Judge  to 
award  an  imprisonment  of  sufficient  duration 
to  give  any  rational  prospect  of  benefit  to  the 
individual  in  the  way  of  moral  and  religious 
instruction,  the  character  is  generally  lost  ir- 
retrievably. The  evil  is  increased  by  the 
faulty  constitution  of  the  Police  Courts,  in 
which  a  number  of  unprofessional  magistrates 
sit,  who  change  every  month,  and  who,  differ- 
ing in  opinion  in  regard  to  the  objects  of  penal 
discipline,  pronounce  every  variety  of  sentence. 
The  consequence  is,  that  the  punishment  being 
imcertain  and  variable,  as  well  as  inadequate, 
the  evils  of  short  imprisonments  are  increased  : 
they  l)ecome  a  subject  of  mockery  among  the 
criminals  themselves  ;  and  these  convictions 
become  a  sort  of  training  school  for  crime. 
Between  the  three  years  from  1843  to  1846,  as 
appears  from  a  published  Report  of  the  Gov- 


APPENDIX.  259 

eriior  of  the  Ediuburgli  Prison,  740  children 
under  fourteen  years  of  age  had  been  commit- 
ted to  that  prison.  It  is  painful  to  think,  that 
in  the  case  of  tlie  mass  of  tliese  unhappy  heino;?, 
their  sentence  liad  no  other  effect  tlian  to  ex- 
tinguish any  fear  they  previously  entertained 
of  the  prison,  and  destroy  any  prospect  of  ob- 
taining honest  employment.  You  may  con- 
ceive the  distressing  situation  of  the  Magistrate 
who  is  bound  to  sentence  children  from  nine  to 
fourteen  years  of  age  to  repeated  short  im- 
prisonments, with  the  moral  certainty  that  each 
sentence  is  rendering  them  more  hardened  in 
crime,  and  diminishing  the  prospect  of  any  im- 
provement in  their  cluxracter  or  liabits. 

To  Mr.  Watson,  Slieriff-Substitute  of  Aber- 
deenshire, belongs  the  merit  of  first  organizing 
an  institution  for  arresting  this  great  evil.  Ho 
has  conclusively  shown  the  practical)ility  of 
placing  almost  tlic  whole  destitute  and  neglect- 
ed children  of  a  lar<z'e  town  in  Industrial 
Schools,  before  they  arc  destroyed  by  short  im- 
prisonments, and,  by  means  of  a  system  of  re- 
ligious instruction  and  industrial  training,  re- 
claiming them  from  lialnts  of  idleness  and  vice. 


260     PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 

It  has  been  publicly  acknowledged,  that  thia 
system  has  already  effected  a  great  saving  to 
the  criminal  expenditure  of  the  county.  Sher- 
iff Watson  endeavored  to  stimulate  his  broth- 
er Sheriff  to  make  a  similar  experiment  in 
Edinburgh  ;  but  it  was  not  until  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Guthrie  took  up  the  cause,  that  the  public  at- 
tention was  awakened  to  the  subject  in  a  way 
to  make  the  attempt  feasible. 

Since  these  schools  have  been  formed  in  Ed- 
inburgh, as  Convener  of  the  Acting  Committee, 
as  well  as  in  the  performance  of  my  public  du- 
ties, I  have  watched  their  progress  with  deep 
interest.  I  have  frequently  taken  it  upon  me 
to  send  very  young  offenders  to  the  schools  in- 
stead of  the  prison,  having  first  made  careful 
inquiry  into  the  circumstances  of  each  case, 
and  the  history  and  habits  of  the  party,  and 
also  conversed  with  and  obtained  the  consent 
of  the  parents  or  nearest  relatives,  where  they 
could  be  found.  Some  of  the  most  interesting 
children  in  the  schools  were  admitted  in  this 
way.  I  cannot  say  tliat  I  ever  saw  cause  to 
regret  making  tlie  experiment.  On  the  con- 
trary, after  watching  the  conduct  and  progress 


API  ENDTX.  261 

of  those  young  boys  and  girls  for  many  months, 
I  have  been  delighted  to  observe  a  steady  ad- 
vancement, not  only  in  habits  of  attention  and 
industry,  but  also  in  the  knowledge  of  those 
Bacred  truths  which  can  alone  regenerate  our 
fallen  nature,  and  permanently  affect  the  heart. 
In  many  instances,  those  children  who  had 
lived  in  habits  of  vagrancy,  and  commenced  a 
course  of  crime,  have  given  evidence  of  a  de- 
gree of  improvement  under  the  discipline  of 
these  schools,  such  as  I  have  never  known  to  fol- 
low any  of  the  repeated  imprisonments  I  have 
been  obliged  to  award  in  other  cases.  It  is  a 
remarkable  circumstance,  that  their  teachers 
find  them  very  easy  to  manage,  and  that  many 
show  a  wonderful  aptitude  for  instruction.  In 
visiting  similar  children  in  the  prison  cells,  1 
found  them  generally  sullen  and  stupid  ;  but 
in  the  schools,  though  one  or  two  have  occasion- 
ally run  off,  complaining  of  the  strictness  of 
the  discipline  and  the  early  hours,  the  great 
mass  seem  to  enjoy  a  happiness  and  comfort  to 
which,  I  fear,  they  have  hitherto  been  stran- 
gers. To  one  engaged  in  the  })ainful  and  often 
depressing  duties  attending  the  daily  invest)- 


262  PLEAS   FOR   RAGGED   SCHOOLS. 

gation  and  punishment  of  crime,  I  know  of 
nothing  which  affords  a  more  cheering  prospect 
tlian  the  success  of  these  schools.  When  the 
itiost  powerful  minds  are  perplexed  on  the  ques- 
tion of  penal  discipline,  and  those  profession- 
ally engaged  in  the  administration  of  criminal 
justice  find  themselves  compelled  to  confess 
the  inefficacy  of  the  present  system  of  punish- 
ment to  deter  or  reform  criminals,  or  diminish 
their  number,  it  is  a  most  hopeful  circumstance 
to  find  that  there  is  an  easier,  less  expensive, 
and  more  successful  way  of  checking  the  gigan- 
tic evil,  even  by  taking  these  neglected  out- 
casts, from  whom  the  criminal  ranks  are  daily 
recruited,  and  by  giving  their  minds  and  habits 
a  new  and  healthy  direction,  bringing  them 
under  the  influence  of  the  fear  of  God,  and 
milking  knoAvn  to  them  a  Saviour's  love,  by 
means  of  whicli  their  whole  moral  character 
may  be  elevated,  and  they  may  become  useful 
members  of  society.  It  is  enough  to  visit  the 
institution  in  Ramsay  Lane,  to  satisfy  any  re- 
flecting mind  regarding  the  actual  good  that  is 
effected  under  this  system.  A  more  tangible 
proof  is  afforded  bv  the  diminution  of  juvenile 


APPENDIX.  263 

eomraitments  which  has  already  taken  place. 
This  fact  is  stated  in  a  letter  addressed  to  me 
last  spring  by  Mr.  Smith,  the  Governor  of  tlic 
Edinburgh  Prison,  and  which  was  referred  to 
by  Lord  Ashley,  in  his  memorable  speech  in  the 
House  of  Commons  last  session.  That  an  ex- 
periment on  so  limited  a  scale  has  already  told 
on  this  unfortunate  and  dangerous  class  of  our 
population,  is  an  incontestible  proof  of  the 
great  permanent  benefit  that  would  result,  if 
the  schools  were  sufficiently  extended  to  em- 
brace the  whole  of  this  class  of  children  in  the 
city,  instead  of  only  including  about  an  eighth 
or  tenth  part  of  them. 

It  has  long  been  manifest  to  me,  that  such  an 
institution,  adequate  to  the  state  of  the  popu 
lation,  is  as  much  needed  in  every  large  town 
as  an  infirmary  or  hospital  .for  the  sick,  or  a 
jail  for  ordinary  offenders.  No  criminal  pre- 
ventive police  system  will  succeed  without  it  ; 
and  vagrants  and  beggars  will  swarm  in  our 
streets,  notwithstanding  increasing  poor-rates. 
In  this  view,  such  schools  should  be  largely 
supported  by  a  grant  from  the  public  funds,  or 
by  local  assessment.    It  has  been  proved  that 


264     PLEAS  FOR  RAGGED  SCHOOLS. 

the  existing  system,  under  which  these  outcasta 
run  the  course  of  convictions  in  the  Police, 
Sheriff,  and  Justiciary  Courts,  is  attended  with 
enormous  expense  ;  so  that  the  financial  or  eco- 
nomical argument  is,  as  usual,  all  on  the  side 
of  early  religious  and  moral  instruction. 

In  the  meantime,  and  until  our  statesmen 
make  up  their  minds  on  the  subject,  which  is 
not  without  its  difficulties,  I  trust  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Edinburgh  will  not  be  behind  those 
of  Aberdeen,  Dundee,  and  Perth,  in  showing 
the  Government  and  the  public  the  practica- 
bility of  carrying  on  these  schools,  without 
-risk  of  abuse,  and  in  such  a  manner  as  to  re- 
lieve the  police  and  prisons  of  many  poor  chil- 
dren, who  will  otherwise  fall  into  that  melan- 
choly course  of  habitual  crime  and  continually 
recurring  punishment  which  all  deplore ;  and 
thus  be  instrumental,  under  the  Divine  bless- 
ing, and  by  means  of  a  sound  system  of  scrip- 
tural instruction,  and  moral  and  industrial 
training,  in  rescuing  many  who  are  ready  to 
pcrisli,  from  a  life  of  guilt  and  a  death  of 
misery.     I  am,  yours,  And.  Jameson. 

Jb  Dr.  G.  Bell,  Sec.  to  the  Original  Industrial  Schooh 


/f,m>i>- 


